The Escort
by BettyBest2
Summary: Meliodas, in theory, has everything anyone could ever want, except what he craves more than anything: a woman to see him and find him appealing. But after many failed relationships, he figures that's not in the cards for him—not unless he pays for it, that is.
1. The Fated Card

Welcome to what was supposed to be a two part one shot and now is a short story! I wouldn't have gotten this far without the incredible JacklynnFrost who not only encouraged me, but also edited my work. If you haven't already, go check out her stuff! She's amazing.  
Thanks for reading!

* * *

He rubs his thumb across the worn and creased card for the thousandth time. The words are faded, but still legible, causing his nerves to pinch with anxiety. With a huff, he tosses the card to the immaculate glass table before him where it lands haphazardly near the sleek black phone he'd tossed away earlier. Just seeing it reminds him of why he took out the card that had been given to him by an old colleague at a company function. It was obviously a joke-a jab at his lack of grace with the fairer sex.

_If you can't get laid the conventional way, why not just pay for it. _

He climbs to his feet at the reminder of the jeered words and marches across the room until the plush black rug transitions to the cold unforgiving marble. Looking out the floor to ceiling windows the glare of city lights wash over his frame. The faint sound of car horns from the tiny vehicles down below reach him. People scurry down the sidewalks, streaking across streets. There's hustle and bustle everywhere he looks.

Eventually, his eyes focus on his reflection and his lips press thin. Neat, flaxen hair frame a plain, pale face. Green shaky eyes he can't even meet for long. He turns away from himself to face the open expanse of his flat of several years feeling his lungs squeeze tighter and tighter as he sees what he's avoided for as long as he could. Everything is in order from the romance novels lining the bookshelves to the bottles of alcohol lined in their cabinet. The portraits on the walls, the vases in the corners, every knick knack and decoration is used to cover up just how cold and lonely this place truly is.

His fingers curl as his stricken gaze lands on the bouquet of flowers wilting on the table beside the door another reminder of the message he received earlier.

_We need to talk, Meliodas. _

_I don't think this is going to work anymore. _

_I met someone and I really think I owe it to myself to give things a try with him. _

_Meliodas? _

_I'm sorry. _

His stomach drops to his toes. He tightens his jaw trying to stem the intense, roiling disgust for himself that takes its place. He'd thought things had been going well. They'd been on a few dates, held hands even. And she'd been the one to kiss him on his cheek most times. He drags his feet forward as his chest heaves with a laugh that tastes bitter on his tongue. Of course, now he sees it was all just pity and a chance to taste the life of the wealthy. It's always the same. And as he sinks back onto the leather couch, he knows it'll never change.

The white card with gold lettering gleams like a beacon in the city lights. His insides churn harshly, but he doesn't look away immediately. It would be nice to have someone who wants to touch him and be close to him and who wants him in return. It would be a miracle for a woman to look past the wealth, see the quirky guy beneath, and find him appealing.

"That's not going to happen, is it?" He says in a tight voice and picks up the card with finality. His anguished fades and in its place is a numb sense of apathy. "Not unless I pay for it."

_The Supreme Deity Agency, _the card reads. _Where the goddess of your choice is yours to entertain. _With narrowed eyes, he slides his phone into his grasp and dials the ten digits that'll take the numbness away in exchange for a modest fee.

* * *

With an even breath, he flips the sloshing bottle into the air. With ease, he aligns a thick glass on the bar briefly noting the neon blues and reds that glint off the rim like tiny smeared stars. Without looking away he offers up his hand palm face up, catching the weight of the bottle and tipping it so that amber sloshes into the glass. Hoots erupt at the small show if dexterity before he slides the glass to the smirking man.

New orders pour in. Several _Old fashioneds _for a group of men wearing ties. _Negoronis _for the women with bright lipsticks and revealing dresses. _Daiquiris, Manhattans, _and _Dry Martinis. _He mixes drinks without batting an eye, the ebb and flow, and rhythm that's required to move as swiftly as he does comes from years of experience. He may be the CEO of _Dragon's Sin Inc, _but the feeling of just being a figurehead while a plethora of others put work into the company never sat right with him. So he got a part time job at a local bar that sold the brand and his feeling of inadequacy diminished a smidge. As a bonus, all his income there is donated to various charities.

As he flips a towel over his shoulder and grabs two bottles for the next drink. He feels a wry smirk shape his lips. What he would believe to be a redeemable quality in himself, hardly means a thing to most. A ring attempts to reach over the swells of noise a room full of women, men, music, and alcohol can cause. He really only notices it because it's the distinct riff of a favorite song of his. His eyebrows knit as he reaches for his phone. Not many contact him outside of business calls. His father is too busy running his own multimillion dollar company and his brother is off galavanting the globe with his sweetheart. The screen is lit with an unfamiliar number. He swipes the screen and holds the phone between his shoulder and ear. "Hello?"

_"Hi! Is this… Meli…odas?" _

His breath catches at the bubbly silvery tone that slides through his ear. She has a little trouble saying his name which isn't uncommon. His father is a fan of Arthurian legend and thought it a good idea to name his first born after the knight. He tries to shake the stupor her voice sends him in and respond. "Y-yes! And you are?"

There's a giggle like tinkling bells and he spills a bit of the drink he's pouring. His first spill of the night. "Oh, you sound cuter than I'd imagined!" While this brings heat to his cheeks he can't help but feel confused. "Excuse my manners! I haven't introduced myself yet! I'm the goddess, Elizabeth, from the Supreme Deity Agency. Do you remember making that request?"

At this, his nervous excitement sours. Of course, he recalls. There was a thorough information sheet he had to fill out online. He only got through it with a bottle of Vanya beer. He'd received the confirmation message a few days later requesting he set up a day he wanted to meet with his chosen "goddess". That message has been untouched for several days with the intention of paying for a service he simply has no plans of experiencing. This phone call puts him in quite the pickle. "I do…?"

"I hope you don't mind me calling. You seemed pretty shy in that adorable picture of yours, so I thought I should call first."

Her frank tone brings red to his ears. Her words, however, cause him to harshen his voice and slam the glass on the bar in front of the woman harder than normal. "Look if this is some kind of joke to you-!" At the startled look of the new customers before him, he quickly signals to the other barkeep to handle things for a few minutes and strides into the back. Lowering his voice he plans to end whatever this is, but she speaks before he does.

"This isn't a joke, Meliodas. I wanted to talk to you before we set up a date. I know you just opted for the date option, but this felt right." Elizabeth tells him.

He doesn't hear pity in her tone. Only sweet sincerity which lowers his gaze to the ground. The low lights of the hall don't help him feel any more at ease with how easily her words make him flush. Being able to hear her lovely voice even better doesn't help much either. "Look, Elizabeth."

"Yes, Meliodas?" She coos in a flirty way that has heat flashing down his skin.

It sounds so real, her interest. But he knows, at least with this, money has to be responsible. So he sighs. "I don't plan on setting up a date."

There's a pause. "Did I overstep? I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to turn you away!"

These are similar to the lines he expects. But the thickness to her voice and the palpable disappointment that leaks through the phone has his breath catching and his back straightening as his fingers tighten around the phone.

"I wasn't completely honest about why I called and you must've figured it out."

"What?" Is all he can get in before she's rushing ahead.

"You're just so attractive. I couldn't wait to hear what you sounded like too," she confesses in a breathy tone he finds utterly alluring and he has to shift himself as his pants as they become a little too tight. "You sent a bust shot, so I know you're pretty fit. And on top of that, you're a little shorter than me!" She gushes like she found the last of her favorite treat she intends to savor.

Even if he wants to interrupt that tone alone has his throat dry and his heart pounding wildly in his throat. So he squirms with a hard on, his mind whirling with fluster.

"Guys are usually taller, which is okay, I guess. But you're cuddle size. I couldn't help but imagine how rough your voice would get as you bounced me in your lap while sucking my nipples and that turned you off, right?" She asks sounding genuinely distraught and all he can manage is a croak.

His knees fail him as his blood rushes to both heads, he sinks to the ground with the wall to his back. "N-no," he inhales shakily feeling both mortified and far from turned off. He tries to figure out if this is just manipulation because there's no way she could want him. "I wasn't going to cancel the payment if that's what you're after." He says a little firmer while trying not to breathe too harshly through the phone.

"Am I not attractive to you?" She instead asks sounding no less distraught.

His stomach swoops as his grip on the phone becomes slippery. He's guilty of not having looked at her information. If there's no meeting, what's the point of looking at what he's missing out on. So he stammers nonsensical words, feeling confused at wanting to explain himself. _'She's probably just one of those girls who goes by the principle of things, that's all _, _' _he reasons feeling like he can finally calm down.

"Meliodas?"

He gasps at the gooey warmth just that imploring use of his name turns his insides into. He may not know her appearance but he can't deny he's entranced by her voice. "Yes, Elizabeth?" He breathes knowing and unable to fight that she has him hooked on that alone.

"I know you have the right to not want to meet me, especially after my bad behavior. But we're on the phone now. Can we at least talk? And after this phone call, you'll never have to hear from me again."

He wets his lips and grapples for words. If it was about just being the principle of the matter, she would've insisted they meet. His eyes blow wide as a seed of hope takes root in his chest. "Okay."

"Really?!" The exclamation brings a tiny grin to his lips as his heart skips. "I promise not to talk about how aroused you make me anymore, if that helps? Guys usually just like to get me on my hands and knees, not hear what turns me on. So if that helps, I won't do it again." She promises in an accommodating way.

He frowns as a heaviness settles in his stomach. She wasn't being dishonest in any way, he realizes. Far from it. She just has no filter. And in a way he recognizes what he's been doing to her, she's lumping him with the other guys she's dealt with before. "I d-didn't find what you said before unappealing!" He blurts out and covers his face with his hand as his skin positively burns.

"You didn't?"

Her excitement is like fuzzy sparks bubbling in his tummy. He squirms where he sits, his cock becoming uncomfortable in its confinement. "N-no! It was-" Incredibly sexy? The hottest thing a woman has ever said to him? He couldn't possibly say that to her. There's no telling what she'd say in response and with how keyed up he already feels... He chews his lip to collect himself. Then smooths his fingers through his hair, grabbing ahold at the roots. "Can we talk about something else?" The words are stretched upward from his fluster.

She laughs prettily like chimes in the wind and his grip loosens altogether. "Okay! Hmm, what's your favorite food?"

He breathes a laugh finding her enthusiasm cute. "I don't really have one." He admits after sifting through various food items mentally.

"You can't be serious? Not even a favorite sweet or... a guilty pleasure?" The last words sounding hushed as they flow like molten heat off her tongue.

His eyes flutter and his head drifts back to rest against the wall while he swallows. "Your voice." He breathes barely over a whisper, surprising himself with his unbidden words.

There's the sound of a quick breath but no words for a few moments and, instead of a resting place, he uses the wall to bang his head against. At this point, he's breaking new records with how fast he can repel women. But then like a quiet wisp of a breeze, she says, "At least there's something about me you like."

He stops his self abuse, his eyes opening wide. She sounds relieved, elated even in that quiet voice. His palms tingle and his heart flutters up his throat. He works his jaw open a few times as he struggles to figure this woman out. "Elizabeth-"

_"Hey Meliodas! The night ain't gettin' any younger!" _Is shouted through the hall effectively ending his impromptu break. But that means he has to end his call would be their last form of communication as an appeasement to him. Something fists his heart and squeezes until each word comes out thin. "Elizabeth, I have to get back to work."

"...okay, Meliodas. I guess this is goodbye then?" She doesn't put up a fight despite the gloominess weighing heavy in her tone.

The phone digs into his hand his grip is so tight. "Elizabeth... We can talk again if you want." This is a test, he rationalizes. It has nothing to do with wanting to hear more of her voice and learn more about her as she already has a leg up on him in that department. He told her the payment wouldn't be cancelled and she wouldn't be forced to have a date with him. She has no reason to-

"I'll talk to you soon then!" Latches onto the offer with obvious vigor. "Goodbye, Meliodas."

He's grateful he's already on the ground as his legs would be useless noodles for him to stand on otherwise. "Goodbye, Elizabeth."

The line goes dead.

He gapes at the black screen for several moments as a chasm of excitement threatens to open up in his chest. He's quick to stamp the feeling down though, knowing it's not guaranteed she will call back, and, if she does, she'll lose interest quickly. Still he unlocks his phone and navigates to the number she used. With finality, he saves the new address as Goddess Elizabeth and stuffs the device back in his pocket when he finds the strength to stand again.

* * *

A day goes by then two. He stops jumping with every ring of his phone. He accepts what he has known with ice surrounding his heart. The icy tendrils seep over his insides, numbing him and he falls back into the routine of his life.

* * *

His fingers fly over the metallic keys of his keyboard, determined to have this proposal written out and delivered to the marketing team by 9:30. He knows there's a way to drive sales through the roof in the female demographic if they altered the advertising of Vanya beer to be an all around drink rather than a pick me up men have after a long day at work. The taste is there, more women just need to be made aware. He's about halfway through the finishing touches, having had to stop to accept calls from his overreaching COO about the new lite line that's still in the development stages. His eyes flick down to the clock in the bottom right corner of the screen. 9:23. He adjusts his target time to 9:45.

A swell of laughter down the hall disturbs his quiet bubble of concentration and he recalls the mini celebration he was invited to for another month of above average sales. He would've gone had his most recent _'fumble in the bedroom' _not been one of the topics of discussion. One of the downfalls of being a young bachelor and head of a multimillion dollar company is that his love life, or lack thereof, is easily accessible. His jaw tightens and tension winds down his back. He starts to make more typos than he cares for and the hot frothing ball in his chest swells and swells.

The phone trills.

He boils over. The phone is in his grip and against his ear as his frustration pops and sears in his tone. "What is it _this _time?"

There's a hesitation that darkens his mood further as the laughter down the hall reaches him once again. "I'm sorry. I thought it would be okay to call since you said... It's fine. I won't bother you again."

_"W-wait! Elizabeth!" _Meliodas shoots up from his chair as if he can physically prevent her from ending the call. In an instant, his ire has morphed into full bodied quivers as his nerves split open like live wires. "I didn't know it was you! I'm just having a stressful moment at work."

"...Okay!" Bubbliness inflates her tone, and he sinks back into his cushy chair feeling as if he's just fought off a thousand dragons and just scraped by. "I just had the longest two days and… it's so good to hear your voice." She continues genuine, soft, and sounds a little like she is coming up for air after being submerged for too long.

His stomach constricts as he sits up straighter.

"I'm glad I was at least able to speak to you before tonight. I'll let you get back to work now." Elizabeth tells him sounding resigned to the fact.

He looks at his document, then the clock. 9:35. The laughter and chatter spills down the hall again. He swivels his chair around to face the expanse of skyscrapers, blue skies and drifting clouds that exist beyond his window and says, "I was just taking a break. We have time to talk if you're up to it." The marketing proposal can be put off for a few days more if necessary. He can break away from his punctuality for once in his life. Besides, even though he knows nothing about her, Elizabeth's tone hints that she needs it.

"Are you sure?" She sounds like a kid being given permission to have another cookie.

He grins and the swells of his cheeks warm. "Positive." Meliodas shuts out what's happening outside his door and gives the woman who has no reason to even remember his name a chance.

* * *

They wind up speaking for hours. He's uncertain of how it even happens. One minute she's teasing him about having his guilty pleasure again and the next they're having a debate on whether a dog or a pig of all things would make a better companion. "Have you ever had your arms around one? They're the cutest things!" He'd laughed not at how ridiculous the idea was, but at how adamant she was. He conceded to her happily, much to her delight.

Through the erratic directions their conversations move, he learns that Elizabeth is a wild cracker to his straight, even flow. She's climbed towering trees as a kid just to see if she could reach the sky better from there. She's never had a pet before but she's befriended a few deers, a pair of hares, and a cute chameleon. She loves dancing in the rain, befriending her bullies, and cooking every meal if she can even though she messes up every single one of them. He's learned that her thoughts wander frequently and has had the time of his life trying to keep up with her. Her mind is brilliant. And everything that comes out of her mouth captivates him. Regardless of how worried he feels that the dull facts of his life might bore her, he latches on to this moment with her, not knowing if he'll ever get another.

"You never asked what my favorite food is." She hints after explaining how she somehow made a disaster of something as simple as a three ingredient batch of cookies.

His cheeks beg for a reprieve from his non stop grinning, but he can't seem to find it in him to do so. Not with her voice so close and his heart feeling the fullest it's ever been. "You're right, I've made a grave oversight. I'd love to know what you would eat above all else." He says while leaning on his desk, the monitor before him long since having gone dark from its inactivity.

"Your cock," she says, like she just disclosed a favorite movie of all time and he chokes on his lurching heart. "Even though I haven't had a chance to taste it yet, I know it'll be as addictive as you are."

His boner he's been graciously ignoring makes its presence known by throbbing against the seam of his slacks. She most definitely _wouldn't _want his dick anywhere near her person if she saw it, and he would never subject her to its displeasing inferiority. His smile finally wanes.

"But for food," she goes on oblivious to his despairing mood, "I'd have to say... spaghetti."

Even through his dampening mental state, he can catch the change in her tone that hasn't shown up since the start of their conversation. He spreads his fingers against the wood of the desk to alleviate some of the tension gathering, knowing he's approaching something delicate. "Why's that?"

He hears her inhale slowly. "Well, my papa used to make it once a month when I was little. It was sort of a tradition between us that carried on as I grew up. He'd always make the sauce and boil the pasta, but he'd let me help make the meatballs. It was fun trying to see who could shape the better spheres. And dinner would feel so much more special because we made it together." She gives a little laugh that's emotionally charged, and he curls his fingers as if he can hold her hand in his and free her from whatever weight she's carrying. "I don't know. It just reminds me of him."

"I—"

His office door swings open and his receptionist knocks on the door as an afterthought. Her short blue hair is in slight disarray and her hazel gaze is frazzled. "Sir, I apologize for the interruption. But you haven't answered any of your calls or e-mails. We have potential investors from overseas and the new line needs approvals." She tells him, waiting expectantly for answers.

He looks to the black business phone on his desk which he'd purposely sat off the hook and sighs into his cell phone. "I guess my break is over." He reluctantly tells Elizabeth.

"That's okay! You've wasted more than enough time on me today. And I need to get ready myself." She steamrolls over his attempts to say their talk has been anything but a waste of his time, and asks in a breathy way, "Would you want to hear from me again?"

"Absolutely. _Definitely." _He assures with a vehemence that surprises him, and twists his insides into knots when the voice inside his head tells him he's the personification of insanity.

"Okay, then! Bye-bye, Meliodas!"

His face warms from the powerful wing beats of the millions of butterflies she invokes within his belly, his heart shaking somewhere in his throat as he melts to warm goo. He has to duck his head when he catches the intrigued glint in his receptionist's eyes. "Goodbye, Elizabeth." He takes his phone from his ear when the line cuts and marvels at how close to dead his battery is. The time reads 2:47 pm.

"Sir? A personal phone call has kept you all this time?" The subtle curve of her lips is reminiscent of a predator smelling the exposed blood of its prey.

Meliodas raises an eyebrow feeling his pragmatic attitude reemerge in the face of his employee. He watches her straighten up at his silent, piercing stare before he lowers his gaze to his monitor as he wakes it up. "Whatever has piled up today, I'll get it done by the end of the week, Jalamet. No need to fret." He tells her in a casual way that does nothing to disguise the warning in his tone. His employees may view him as a failure as a person, but this company wouldn't succeed without him.

"Yes, Sir." She snips and shuts his door behind her, none too gently.

His shoulders slump. A pressure builds in his skull knowing this will be the new topic amongst them as they wonder how long it'll take for him to lose this new woman. He hunches inward, the heels of his hands pressing into his eyes at the riot they'd have if they knew he had to pay for her to even talk to him to begin with. He only stops when he's certain he's forced his anguish back and bright starbursts overtake the darkness of his vision.

When the doc glares half finished at him, he decides he'll try and squash any lingering sense of obligation she feels towards wanting to satisfy him. No amount of money should force her to have anything less than the best. He ignores his insides crumbling into a bleak abyss and scarcely dares to hope that she might want to at least be friends.

It would certainly be nice to have one.

* * *

Their talks continue well into the next week. For hours at a time each morning, he's hers. He's learned to use his Bluetooth in order to multitask. He gets work done slower than usual, but in exchange he discovers more about Elizabeth. Her likes, dislikes, hobbies, a toe dip into the experiences she's had in life, and he tentatively starts to open up to her as well.

Being the oldest son of a business guru offered him a certain childhood. One where he couldn't step out of line, he had the highest expectations to live up to, and the footsteps of his father he had to follow in. He's used to abiding to his narrow path in life, to working all day and drowning out the silence that lingers in his home by busting a few extra hours as a barkeep at night. Though he tries not to bring this up to her. His younger brother had it a bit easier growing up, being allowed to grow and flourish outside of the influence of their father.

Instead of going into too much detail on his lackluster life, he tells her stories he and Zeldris share. Like when he taught the younger to ride a bike and rollerblade, how to keep his nose out of trouble, and how to throw a punch to defend himself or the defenseless.

"Zeldris is a great man. Gelda is lucky to have him," he tells her one morning while nursing his coffee.

"He takes after his brother. Any woman would be the luckiest in the world to wind up with you, Meliodas." She declares without hesitation, having a hushed quality to her voice.

He had gone quiet after, not believing it to be true—wanting it to be the truth for her when he knows he shouldn't—only opening up again after she had gently coaxed him into talking about his love of antique swords.

During their talks, Elizabeth had gone radio silent for another two days, and when they reconnected she sounded free and as unfiltered as ever. But there was a weighty relief to her tone too. She never spoke of those days when usually she enjoys going on about the people she's seen or the random bits that fill up her time. It's quite easy to put together that something unpleasant happens during her time away. No matter how much the desire to be rid of whatever darkness that encroaches upon her light demands to be set free, he won't press her on it. Not unless he's sure that's what she wants. It would be the least he could do after she's been kind enough to grace him with her voice nearly each day.

* * *

The trill of his cell phone jolts from his slumber. For a moment, Meliodas just lies there eyes bleary and burning from being awoken from a deep sleep. The ringing continues and he lets out a heavy breath. Reaching blindly, his arm bangs against the wood of the side table before he snatches up the sleek device and swipes to answer. "Hello?"

"Meliodas?" Elizabeth's voice is stretched thin, vibrating with distress.

His drowsiness is washed away in icy shocks. His breathing escalates, his muscles tensing as he prepares to hunt down the reason she's calling at one in the morning in obvious worry. _"What is it? What's happened?" _His voice scrapes low in his throat, sharp and demanding. When she gasps but doesn't speak, he inhales, holds it for three seconds, then asks in a marginally smoother tone, "Are you okay?"

"Ye-yes, I just… I had a nightmare. Silly, right?" She laughs but it's a thin rickety frame barely resembling the full laughter he's used to.

His tensing doesn't fade. His eyes even glance towards his keys on the table though he doesn't know where she lives. Her fright could be from her panicking from a nightmare, but the fist tightening around his stomach says otherwise. "It's not silly. I'm glad you called."

"Even though I woke you up?" She sounds tiny and frail. A far cry from the spirited woman he's come to know.

A throb kicks up in his skull. His vision tints red for a split second. "Yes. I want you to call me if you're ever," he chooses a different word so as not to unwittingly drive a wedge between them, "afraid. Okay?"

She breathes a smooth, easy sound. "Oh, I wish you were here with me now. Instead…"

Her words fill his lungs with crisp air. "Elizabeth…" As they've gotten to know each other, he hasn't been brave enough to bring up the label of friendship between them as that's all he'll allow himself to have with her. Anything more and she'll surely be repulsed. But it's comments like that that drag him thrashing back to reality. Even though they've become friendly, there's still a part of her that he assumes feels obligated to flirt because he paid for that and more.

"What were you dreaming of before I woke you?" She prods after he struggles with his tongue for too long sounding a smidge less shaken.

He follows her subtle wishes, going with her conversation in hopes of calming her down. Forcefully loosening his muscles, he rests against the cool wood of his headboard, his pillows at his power back. "I don't know. I..." He attempts to capture the dreg of memory that evades his every swipe, knowing there was something good about his dream. He takes a harsh breath when he gets ahold of it, feeling the dream open up like a bomb in his hands. It was a dream with vague visuals and sharp scents, sounds, and sensations. His skin feels as if it's inches from the sun as he remembers in great detail a soft, warm body over his, her lips feather soft on his. There was silken tresses dusting across his cheeks, her belly fluttering gasps and moans in his ear, and wet, molten heat grinding along his cock, teasing the weeping head until his heart felt like it would burst and he was ready to fall apart before her eyes.

"I was dreaming of nothing, Elizabeth!" He rushes out in a rasping voice feeling his hardon that had wilted before making a powerful, aching resurgence.

"You sound all cute and flustered," she giggles a sweet revived sound and that alone shapes a broad albeit nervous grin to his lips. "Which means you're hiding something... Oh! Was it a naughty dream?I hope you were doing things to me..." She breathes and he squirms at the hot flash of unbridled need this causes.

"The other way around." The truth flits free of its cage and, with desperation, he wants to swallow it back. His breathing ceases. He prays she misheard. She doesn't need to be guilted into anything else.

Her breathing comes shaky in his ear and he wants nothing more than for the earth to open up and remove his disgraceful being from its soil. "You really want that? Because I want—"

There's a faint bang in the background.

"I'm sorry! I have to go."

There's a thick silence against his ear. He stares at the black screen, motionless. A million and one possibilities fire off through his skull of why she really called. They're enough to have him up and out of bed in search of her, but he forces himself to remain where he is. He keeps his phone close by, the ringer turned up high, and lies back down stiffly. He begs anyone listening to keep her safe, because the thoughts floating through his mind like an ominous cloud point to nothing good. He tries to reassure himself that she works with a well known agency, if there is any suspicious activities occurring they would nip it in the bud immediately. Despite the assurance, he doesn't sleep that night, having wound himself so tight, ready to spring into action if she called again.

She didn't. Not that night, or the day after, or the one after that. His own calls to her go straight to voicemail. He realizes with each failed attempt to connect what situation he's cornered himself into. With each utterance of her voice, she wove a thread around him, unique and as breathtaking as he's come to know her. Everytime his mood sinks low he thinks of something silly she said, or the sound of her laughter, or simply of _her, _and he smiles, his emotions improving in a blink. Despite his carefully placed barriers between them, he unwittingly left breaches she's darted her way through and now she's embedded down deep in his being with no way of removing her in sight.

He wants her. In his arms as they cuddle on the couch watching movies she swears by., in his bed as he moves between her legs, satisfying her in a way that can only be fantasy. But she doesn't want him. Her words before she abruptly cut the line play through his mind and he's forced to amend his thoughts. She _could _want him, but only because she hasn't met him in person. But once she has, the reality will jar her from whatever illusion she created of him. Because no one would ever truly want him, his past relationships has made that very clear.

But he could still meet her. Even though she wouldn't want him sexually, she could still want to keep their friendship in tact. He'd be able to live with that without complaint. And as a friend she can turn to and trust him. He would carefully pull her from the situation he fears she's in, and gladly take care of whatever is threatening her.

His phone rings in his hand early the third day. He answers without missing a beat. "Hello? Elizabeth? Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm perfect now that I can hear your voice." Her unfiltered honesty cuts through his preparation for this call like a hot knife through butter.

His keys slip through his fingers at the door as he squeaks before coughing to disguise the sound. But she's heard it already, her tinkling laugh like music to his ears. "I'm sorry to have called so early, Meliodas. I just..." She trails off and he snatches his keys up from the darkened wood to keep his hand busy as his nerves begin to run rampant.

"No, it's fine, Elizabeth. I needed to hear you too. I..." He fills his chest with air and takes the plunge. "If you let me do the leading, I wo-wouldn't... mind... se-seeing you..." His cheeks prickle as he hunches his shoulders and bears the fierce thumps of his heart in his chest.

There's a thick gasp. "Meliodas. _Meliodas, yes! Yes! _I want to be there in front of you right now." She says all in one enthusiastic breath that requires him to brace his back against the door and slump to the ground as the flips of his stomach overwhelms him. "Where are you? I can come this instant! We can have breakfast while watching the sun rise and I just know the tension will be so thick from being so close to you and gazing into those soulful green eyes. I hope you kiss me right there, then take me bent over the table—"

"Elizabeth!" He cries out, voice straining from how achingly vivid that scenario is with the table in question in the corner of his eye.

"Hmm?" She sounds a bit lost in thought and he just knows by the tightening in his pants that she's fantasizing about it at that very moment.

He lets his head fall back with a thump to the wood, his heart filling with pangs at how incredible that would be if it were in any way at all possible. "I was thinking I could make you dinner instead?"

"Tonight?" She eagerly asks.

He swallows having thought he'd have a little bit longer, but if tonight is what are wants... "Yes. How about 8?" He rattles off his address knowing she'd agree.

"I'll see you later, Meliodas." Her voice lowers to a sensual note of promise.

"I'll se-see you." He breathes shakily, then ends the call. _'Just get through the day and I'll see her tonight.' _He bottles the flood of panic this causes tight in his chest and pushes himself to his feet. He has to do a quick sweep of his kitchen to be sure he has the right ingredients before heading off to work. Hopefully with this being the start of the week he'll have enough tasks to help him blaze through the day.


	2. Date Night

Thank you JacklynnFrost for your help and support! You're amazing!  
Thank you all for reading :)

* * *

He paces the length between the dining table and living room couch, his worry wearing a path into the marble. He can't keep his hands still, running them through his hair only to straighten the strands again or smooth out invisible creases in his favorite vest. The food he'd prepared is simmering on the stove, the savory smell of it not able to cut through the knots of his stomach and entice his hunger. He still can't wrap his mind around the idea that she's coming to his home and might actually be interested in him. Sure they've talked a lot and he's thoroughly tangled in her voice, her laugh, and the quirks he's noticed. And she's mentioned plenty of times how much he unwittingly excites her, but she'll surely reconsider when they meet in person. There's no doubt about it.

His hand reaches for his neck to loosen a button only to find it's already been undone. The tightness in his throat is purely emotional. Wide eyed, he scrambles for his phone on the glass table in the living room with thoughts flying through his mind on how to cancel this crazy idea of meeting.

_Ding-Dong _

The phone slips and lands with a muffled plop on the couch. His eyes flick to the ticking grandfather clock in the corner adjacent to the window. A few minutes after eight. It's Elizabeth. Steeling his nerve so all his shaking is purely internal, he strides towards the door. The knob is cool against his clammy skin so he gasps it tighter and pulls the door open. All attempts at getting himself together are lost at the sight of her.

Meliodas had imagined various appearances for what Elizabeth might look like, from a suburban homemaker to a supermodel. Every imaginable combination that he could think of that might fit her entrancing tone was wrong. The real deal is someone ripped straight from the clutches of heaven. His breathing ceases and his manners desert him as he openly ogles the goddess before him. Round pure blue eyes rest in a heart shaped face that long silver tresses frame delicately. Her lips are pink and plump, the lower being tugged between her teeth causing a low rumble to escape the cage of his chest. Her creamy skin is exposed down the length of her arms and the tops of her perky tits. His eyes are drawn lower, past the cinch of her waist and the flare of her hips. Her legs extend for days and the sight of her tugs a needy groan from his throat.

His fingers tingle with the desire to touch while his heart dashes at speeds unsustainable as he looks her over again and again, uncertain where to stare the most because every inch of her is pure perfection. She shouldn't exist. A woman that meets his every physical attraction shouldn't be in his vicinity. Her personality is already arresting, his involvement with her would merely taint her inner beauty.

He takes a step back, but she reaches for him. Her hands land on his shoulders and he goes still with his chest constricted. He looks to her face, at the sigh she breathes, finding her eyes lidded and their depths a molten ocean that has his blood boiling and his cock bulging his pants. Her scent curls in his nose and he becomes as dazed as she looks. The soft femininity twined with a subtle sweet perfume is a heady distraction.

Her hands trail down, their heat sinking into him and joining the pool gathering low in his belly. He trembles in her grasp, his heart beats violent and fast. When she grips and traces his exposed forearms, sparks blaze between them at the undeniable connection. It is a velvety smooth sensation, almost too much for him to take. His knees weaken at the sight of her pupils blowing wide, her gaze as fixed to him as a hawk. She exhales a happy little noise, her hands finally coming down to wrap around his. He holds onto her without a thought, entangled in the threads she easily casts around him.

"It's so great to finally meet you, Meliodas." Her lips curve, noticeably softening her gaze to something tender.

His heart leaps through the clouds as his jaw moves uselessly for a few moments. "I'm b-being rude! Please, come in Elizabeth. You can place your purse on that table and your shoes to the side." He gestures to the indicated spots freeing one hand from hers to do so. His steps backward are awkward and he's painfully reminded of his rigid problem. When he stops up short, his face feels frozen in burning mortification while Elizabeth's eyes glide down his body openly, her focus zeroing in at his crotch. He lets her hand go and whirls away from her view as if that'll erase what she's already seen. "I'm sorry! I should control myself better!"

There's shoes clacking and a thump. Then his body jostles with hers aligning at his back. He has to lock his throat around the moaning-yelp at feeling what her soft mounds and warm curves does to his ache. A silken giggle chimes in his ear and her hands wandering over his chest has him breathing a curse as his mind becomes fuzzy. "I was afraid you wouldn't like me in person. Seeing you so hard makes me ache to be filled."

"Elizabeth...!" He gasps, pleading. His senses are being overwhelmed. At this rate, he's certain he'll go into shock.

She lets go and even though she fills him beyond bursting, he wants that feeling back in a blink. "I'm sorry! I promised I would be good and let you lead." She sashays around him, her finger leaving a trail of fire down the curve of his cheek. "You're just so irresistible without distance to keep me back."

Her eyes are wide and honest. "I, uh, should go prepare the food!" The words spring from his mouth as he stumbles away to the kitchen.

"Can I help?" She calls out.

He grabs the bowls he'd set aside beforehand on the black counter. "It's fine. I've got it." The repetitive motions of doling out food helps calm his shaking at least. With her there in the flesh, it's difficult to believe her interest is anything but genuine. But then again, they all showed interest at first, though none were nearly as intent with their advances. In the end, it was always for his money. However, Elizabeth sees something in him that clearly excites her beyond the money he's paid for her. Though the reality of the situation will force her to remain in the friend's zone which he wholly accepts.

Two bowls in hand, he makes his way to the dining table in time to see Elizabeth moving things around. He studies her round eyes and the chipper set to her lips as she systematically moves one set of silverware and napkins right beside the other. Oh. "What are you…?" His throat bobs with his swallow.

"I can't be close to you across the table, silly." She turns to him, takes her bowl from his hands, and suddenly goes still. Everything about her goes quiet. Her expressive eyes, the set of her lips, and the language of her body.

His heart sputters and skips as tension winds down his body in wait of her reaction to the hopefully thoughtful meal he prepared.

She blinks a few times, then turns to her place setting without a word. His gut wrenches at his mistake. He squeezes his eyes tight and clenches his jaw at his own stupidity. Why would she think of this as a sweet gesture?

"I apologize for overstepping." He takes a breath against the rising waves of self loathing inside. He hopes he can dig his way out of this grievance when her satin touch cups his hands. In the next breath, lips press to his cheek and his eyes pop open. She's there, her scent all he can breathe, her lips lingering as every nerve ending is charged with arcs of electricity. His body becomes flushed with heat from the never ending currents, his heart all but stopped as she sends him soaring up above with a simple kiss. She pulls away, her cheeks sporting rosy blooms and his soul drifts lazily back in place to properly experience the residual warmth of her brand on his flesh.

"Thank you for this—for listening and being so kind." She tells him tenderly as her hands squeeze around his.

He's certain the only reason he's still holding his bowl is because of her hands. His limbs feel limp as noodles, the way he feels after achieving orgasm. He ducks his gaze from hers with wide eyes at the comparison. "It's my pleasure, Elizabeth." He forces the words past his tight throat.

A tinkle of giggles follows before his bowl is taken and placed on his setting. Then her hand slots with his naturally as she brings him to his seat. The brush of their thighs is like a match strike, sparks and flames burst to life. He finally forces his nerves down enough to meet her gaze only to find her wolfing down the spaghetti without preamble. It's a shock, but more fascinating than anything. The women he's dated before are usually more dainty when they eat. Elizabeth shows little class as she scarfs her food down and he finds himself breathing a little faster, his arousal spiking further.

She looks at him mid bite and he curses himself for staring so intensely at her. She slurps her food down and for the first time appears sheepish in the way she smiles. Before she can undoubtedly apologize, he lifts a napkin and begins wiping the sauce from her cheeks feeling steady while doing so. Her cheeks darken and he's forced to swallow a groan. "I've made the gravest mistake in not telling you how beautiful you are, Elizabeth." He confesses in a lowered tone after dropping the cloth napkin to the table to sweep his thumb over her heated skin feeling the most comfortable taking care of her needs.

Her eyes round and the bridge of her nose reddens as well. It's almost too much seeing this side of her, seeing more of her in general. He's uncertain of the cause as he sweeps his thumb over the swell of her cheek slower this time, unsure if he's imagining the squeak that sounds from her throat. Was his compliment too forward?

Her hand presses over his and he leans back realizing he was invading her personal space in his attempts to make sure he'd gotten everything off her face. But her hand holds his in place as she parts her lips. "I knew there was a bold side to you as well. I can't wait to see it come out in bed."

With her breathy statement, he feels things invert as his stomach drops. In bed. That's how this whole thing started. He wanted to share romance with someone and eventually tumble into bed. He hired Elizabeth for that sole purpose. And though she's been kind and receptive through this whole ordeal, no amount of money will cushion his shortcomings in bed.

"Eat up, Meliodas. You don't want it to go cold, do you?" She prods as she lets his hand go.

He picks up his utensils on autopilot and turns to his food, not the least bit hungry. "You're right."

With her massive headstart, he only manages to swallow a few unappetizing bites before her hand settles on his thigh. Not at the knee either. He jumps but her hand adds pressure to keep from slamming the limb into the table. He sends a furtive look her way only to find her gazing at him with wide, innocent eyes. Her lack of social etiquette is both maddening and knee weakening. Forcing his gaze back down to his meal, he subtly places his right hand over her left on his thigh as a nonverbal cue. She either ignores it or misunderstands as she presses onwards taking his hand for the ride.

The tips of her fingers graze the head of his rigid cock, not seconds after. He chokes at the white hot flare of pleasure and feels a surge of panic erupt to subdue it. He forces her hand away from it as his silverware clanks into his bowl, desperately not wanting her to notice his inadequacy. One look at the shock sharpening her eyes and rounding her lips sends him surging from his seat, the chair squealing from his harsh movements. "I'll clean these up." He picks up the bowls without waiting for a response and rushes to the kitchen.

Shoulders locked and back tense, the sound of her chair scraping over the tile has him wound so tight his head pounds slightly from the stress. An excuse will come, he knows it. Or maybe she'll stay for the rest of this faux date and leave when things become too awkward. The sneers the guys always sent his way in the locker room buzz like irritable bees through his head and he regrets having thought calling that agency was a good idea.

The water suds and he reaches for the towel to clean. The fluffy one meant for drying disappears out of the corner of his eye a moment later and her heat radiates along his side. He smooths his expression and gives her a flat look, expecting to see sadness at his expense dwelling somewhere in her cerulean pools. He discovers there's nothing of the sort after studying her for several moments. Only the intense look of interest rolling beneath the surface that's been unchanged since he opened his door to her.

In his stunned gape at her, she leans into him a smidge. "You know... I'm more than capable of giving you a helping hand." It's said smoothly like a bright suggestion. Everything about the way she takes the plate from his hands to rinse off screams of innocuousness.

But his mind is thrown into a tizzy over the double entendre. Why would she want anything to do with him when no one else seems to? His breathing is shallow as he attempts to throw a majority of his focus into scrubbing instead of the silver haired beauty light years out of his league. "You don't have to."

The bowl makes a small clink as she places it to the side. "But what if I want to?"

His shoulders slump. "Elizabeth..."

"Won't you show me around?" She inserts before he can finish. Her hand tugs at his sleeve as if to coax him into leaving the few utensils for later. "It looks so big here! I'm pretty sure my whole apartment and then some could be squeezed in here." She goes on drawing his gaze fully.

There's no tightness to her eyes or scrunch to her nose. Only curiosity laces her voice. Even though leaving the mess goes against his sense of order, he begins to wash his hands, feeling her enthusiasm pour into him and filter his skepticism out. "If the living room and dining room look like this, I wonder how the bedroom and bathroom will be?"

"The bedroom is pretty similar in that there are windows that extend one wall, but there's a fireplace too..." He rattles off absentmindedly as he goes to dry his hands. "The bathroom is my favorite part because of how open it is, windows on all three sides makes a sunrise bath pretty atmospheric. The "lack of privacy" is why my father was able to get this place for a fraction of the going price."

Her arm hooks around his and he's pulled from the kitchen. "Show me, please!"

She does most of the leading taking the only logical route down the hall while he stumbles along. At her pace, they're in his room before he can offer a word of hesitation. They come to a stop in the center of the room. A hush settles over them in a thick blanket. An odd twinge sparks in the air as he eyes his own bed with Elizabeth so close to his side. The soft glow of pale orange from the myriad of city lights cascades over the sheets and pillows through the crack of the curtain. His skin starts to prickle where they touch, his stomach tightening as he braves a look her way.

Her eyes are roaming around, the faint light casting streaks of fire in her eyes. He wets his mouth instinctively at the sight of her plump lips curling upwards wondering if she'd taste as sweet as she smells. Gently she pulls free of him and glides on light feet to the window. Parting the curtains more he's taken by the sight of her frame outlined in a halo of warm color in the otherwise dark room. She's quiet in her stance and ethereal in her beauty. Standing in his room he may as well be graced with the lost eighth wonder of the world.

"My papa used to love views like this. So high up you could see the clouds at eye level. Of course, when he would share those sights with me, we were in the mountains back where I grew up." She tells him softly, her voice mingling with the ambient atmosphere easily.

Meliodas listens with rapt attention, moving to her side so he can see her face clearly. She's mentioned her father before, but always in the past tense. Barbs open up in his stomach as he waits for her to continue.

"I can still remember the joy that lit up his eyes. With me on his shoulders and the world stretched out around him, it almost seemed like nothing could bring him down." Her features are wistful as she looks on probably seeing something different than the city view.

Without a thought he reaches for her hand at his side, a fierce need to ease her urges him to lace their fingers. She gives him a tiny grin, a glimmer of something deep in her gaze making his heart flutter. "What happened to him, if you don't mind me asking?" He's tentative with his question, when she squeezes his hand.

She looks forward once more. "He's sick. It happened a few years ago. After a rare drought rendered our source of income down to next to nothing, our home was foreclosed and we had to move to the city. He developed a cough that grew worse and worse." She shakes her head and gives him a determined look with her narrow and her lips set in a line. "Papa will be fine. I'll make sure of it."

Her fiery strength leaves him breathless. "Is there anything I can do for you?"

Little by little that fire fades out as a more vulnerable, shaken side is revealed. He sees a flower that's weathered many storms, withstood droughts, the unrelenting changes around it, and is still going strong. But even with its unyielding nature, it could use a respite. Even if only for a little while. "You could kiss me and make it better."

If she wants him to shelter her from the harsh elements of this world, he'll take on that duty without question.

Making sure his movements are telegraphed to her widening eyes, Meliodas reaches for her face. Carefully he slides the rough pads of his hands over the creamy warmth of her skin. She gasps and stands still, her eyes never leaving his face. The closer he moves the heavier his eyes feel, like he's falling under the heady pull of her aura. He waits a scant breadth from her mouth feeling her air rush into him and his into her. He drags his lidded gaze from the blue of her eyes down to her slightly parted lips once, twice then thrice before her eyes flutter.

He captures her top lip between his. A shaky sigh escapes them both as a mere sip of her flavor is sampled. Under the taste of their dinner, he finds something clearer like crisp water from the runoffs of a mountain and addictive like the sweetest ambrosia. A hook of need tugs low in his belly and he draws closer, her hands clinging to his biceps as he captures her lower lip next. He goes slow, breathing heavily through his nose as he savors her for all she's worth. His tongue stretching out as he craves more, sliding over the seam of her mouth before delving in just a touch. She parts for him with a pleased hum and his eyes fall completely shut, his thoughts giving way to pure sensation.

Sliding his tongue first under the lower then the upper, he embraces the bubbling sparks this causes and cups the back of her neck to hold her in place. Lips slanting, a groan curls all the way up from his surging desire and the way she presses into his hips with her own. His knees shake from the flare of raw need and he grabs her closer. He delves into her with a rumble in his chest feeling his control lapse when their tongues brush, then glide over one another. The tingles that flash over his skin hitches his breath and his soul becomes flooded with the sound of her unrestrained moan.

In a blink he's kissing her harder, deeper, as her fingers move to curl in his hair, her nails lightly scraping his scalp. The sensation is like rivulets of electricity running up and down his spine causing twitching throbs in his cock and his breath to catch in his throat. He's losing himself as she captures his tongue with her warm, moist lips, sucking sounds from him that he craves to bring out of her. His inhibitions start to melt between his fingers as he drags a hand down. His fingertips skimming her neck as she quivers and sliding over her clothed breast as she all but rocks into him. He nips her lip when she pulls back for air, the feel of the swell in his grasp making him dizzy enough to tease her mouth. A drag of his teeth across her lower lip. A suckle of her glorious tongue as he presses and twists his own around hers. He earns his reward as she sings for him little moans and whimpers, lingering sighs and breathy groans all while he holds the weight of her tit in his trembling hand.

It's so new, a never before experienced wonder and he fears she might not like his touch. The hesitation drags him slightly away from the intoxication she instills in him.

Until she arches into his hand and breaks his devouring of her mouth with an audible smack. "Please..."

With a swallow and a drag of his tongue to catch more of her taste, he gives her a squeeze. She sighs and nuzzles her cheek to his, erupting a shower of embers where they rub. Something hardens under his palm and his throat bobs as he realizes what. His thumb lowers to press against the pert bud through her dark blouse and chokes on his tongue when it becomes obvious there's no bra covering her.

Her lips find his ear in his stillness and the lazy kisses to the shell has him thumbing the bud in sluggish circles, his mind blanking. "Yes… please touch me." Her tone is silky smooth over his skin spurring him into sudden movement.

Turning he captures her mouth with a rough groan, his hand going down to press into the small of her back while he pinches the bud experimentally. She squeals into him and he swallows it hungrily, twisting and rubbing her as his kissing technique becomes a little sloppier. All he wants is her lips against his until they're swollen and sensitive. Her fast breathing and shaky sounds as he paws her breast fuel a drive to be closer and feel more of her. His hand slips under the back of her blouse. She falls into him, her hands grabbing at his back as she cries out between them. His blood rings in his skull and pulses in his aching cock. Her movement and sensual voice jolting his hips into hers as his need builds until it's pressing tight under his skin.

Elizabeth doesn't hesitate, her hips rocking into his as her back bows enough to offer her breasts towards his face. He keeps his eyes shut for several moments, the sensation of rubbing his cock into her pelvis even through their clothes is enough to slump his head forward atop the pillows she provides. He's only known his hand compared to this tease of rough strokes. This movement of fluid thrusts snips through his control effortlessly and he winds up wrapping his arms around her waist, giving in as she seems to want him to. He moans thickly every time the head is squeezed, his thighs quaking at the building flames coiling low. He blinks his eyes open, wanting to see if this is okay for her. Fleshy cleavage, flushed and heaving, fills his vision and his thrusts falter at the rush in his gut that burns up his neck. He's on the edge, his lungs feeling compressed under the pleasure just looking at her tits, feeling them cup his cheeks, and her scent fills him. Like pouring an ocean into a vase, he feels cracks at his seams and tries to pull back.

She doesn't let him, her fingers pressing into his back as she gyrates her hips in tight movements that knock him off balance and drags a pleading noise from his throat. The bed meets his knees and she tumbles over him her thighs spreading over his cock as her being overwhelms him. The weight of her atop of him, her breasts squished between them, her lips gliding all over his, and the grind of her center over his cock rams into the quaking coil inside until it springs loose in a glorious burst that has him jerking up into her.

Her cry is barely heard over the thunder of blood in his ears as he holds her steady for his needy thrusts. Meliodas burns like the sun, his pleasure flaring with an intensity that has his thighs shaking as he presses reverent messy kisses to the skin he can reach. It's never lasted this long, the orgasms he's used to feeling like undeserved bursts as opposed to these lingering waves she's granted him. She grinds along with him, teasing him as he grunts and squirms under her, strung up so high he's certain he'll never find his way back down. His ears ring and he fights for breath, grabbing her ass tighter when she grinds a loud curse from him. She places a kiss to his throat when he starts to go limp, her motions finally slowing with him as he gasps for air and goes limp with satisfaction.

There's several moments as his mind gradually clears. Harsh breathing is heard. Fingers caressing his cheek is the first thing he feels. The sticky sweat making his clothes a heavy nuisance on his skin is next. The trickle of warm cum down his thigh hits him square in the gut and his eyes fly open.

Elizabeth is peering right at him, her eyes softened in their gaze as her hair falls messily across her shoulders. "You're so cute when you finish. Better than any face I could have imagined, Meliodas… I want to see that face again…"

But he doesn't hear her salacious words. The feeling of abstract dread creeping in on all sides and there's nowhere he can hide. He came in his pants like an adolescent dry humping, of all things. And the worst part is that she's no doubt felt the length of him. And it doesn't matter how nice and kind she is, she shouldn't have to settle for not only a virgin but a virgin who stands no chance of being able to please her the way she deserves. His spirit wilts and his eyes fall shut. "I'm sorry." He manages in a quavering voice.

He feels her freeze above him. "What? No... No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have forced you to orgasm when I promised to let you lead." She counters quickly, voice thick. _"I'm sorry." _

There's a knot that swells until his throat feels too tight, her decency becoming too much. Deliberately he lifts her off of him and places her on the bed beside him. Opening his eyes he finds hers wide with concern, her eyebrows furrowing deeply enough to cause a crease. Breathing slowly, he runs his fingers through her short bangs. "You don't have to do this, Elizabeth. I'm not going to force you for more. This evening has been more than I could've hoped for and I have you to thank for that. I'm happy to be a friend to you." Looking at her further—at what he wants but can't realistically have—shoves millions of little pins through his heart. He jerks away from her and off the bed.

He hears her sit up and the frail questioning tone when she calls his name, but he's quick to disappear into the bathroom hoping his message is clear. She's free to leave. She doesn't have to subject herself to his unpleasant shortcomings any longer and he won't hold it against her. He'll be her friend however she needs him. Once closed inside, he's forced to breathe through his nose for several long moments as the storm of self-hatred rages inside. _'This is nothing new.' _He's always been a disappointment to the fairer sex. Too weak compared to the alpha males. Unable to please them the way they need. _'This is nothing new,' _he forcefully reminds himself as a few tears burn past his defenses. Harshly scrubbing them away, his gaze captures his own reflection in the mirror mounted to the window across the room.

He looks almost unrecognizable from his messy hair to his rumpled clothes. He recognizes the hollowness to his eyes though and jerks his gaze away. Twisting the dial on the stone wall for the lights, he keeps them dim as the light pollution of the city more than illuminates the room. Shirking off his clothes, he throws them in the hamper and turns the facet on in his sunken bath. Climbing in as the warm water fills around him, Meliodas tries to go numb to his failure by thinking of his business plans lined up in the future. The 9 o'clock meeting Tuesday with financing instead of his lack of skill in groping her. The new investors he has to deal with instead of how eager for touch he came off as. The new business venture in Ireland he'll have scheduled in the coming months instead of how fast he came in his pants. He breathes it all out and sinks further into the bath as he shuts off the water, resigned to his eternal loneliness.

The bathroom door swings open smoothly.

He lurches forward, the water splashing loudly with the movement. The icy wall within shatters as his eyes bulge at her reappearance. "Elizabeth?! Why would you—What are you still doing here?"

She doesn't pay him any mind for a moment. He swallows, jaw slack as she closes the door behind her and gazes around with starry eyes. "I want to be here," she breathes the words out as if it's the most obvious thing in the world while still taking in the scenery.

His jaw closes and his eyes narrow slightly as he goes still. He's certain he's heard wrong.

"And I still wanted to see this place. This is amazing, Meliodas!" She bounces on the balls of her feet.

His eyes struggle between ogling her bouncing tits or her bare ankles and arched soles as both cause his cock to rise. Ultimately, they decide to roam over the entire length of her against his better judgement while his mind is occupied with his whirling confusion. She shouldn't still be here. Why is she still forcing herself?

And then with apparent purpose, Elizabeth turns towards him and brings her hands to the top buttons of her blouse. He feels trapped in place, unable to look away. Her eyes are stark jewels in the lighting, focused and intent as she peels open her shirt. It falls to the floor with a barely audible whisper. A rush of air leaves him as he fights against the pressure trying to drive his gaze down with the force of a crushing black hole. It's a pointless battle he concedes to as he hungrily drinks in her bared flesh. The creamy skin is flawless in his mind. Perky, round tits with rosy pink nipples that tighten before his eyes. He notices a cute mole that dots the side of her left breast, subconsciously licking his lips as he imagines worshiping the entirety of each swell before descending down her soft belly.

He shifts lower in the water, hating how swiftly his cock has risen to attention, stiff against his navel above the water. But he can't bring his gaze away, feeling overly hot in his blood as he pants for air. So lost in the dip of her navel, he sees her thumbs hook on her skirt. She bends down, hair cascading towards the floor when she forces the material down. He groans deeply at the prospect, dragging his gaze up the expanse of her back to the fleshy cheeks of her ass. His heart stops when she rises back up. She'd taken her panties off too. His hands grip the edges of the bath tight enough to blanch the blood from his knuckles and cause a strain in his bones. Her mound is neatly trimmed silver hair, her lower lips a deep pink that kicks his heart into skipping beats.

_'Is she... She can't be aroused. Why would she be? She can see me.' _His mind attempts to grasp for straws of understanding. But he's left scrambling internally and incapable of moving or speaking when she strides her way to the bath with a subtle swaying of hips. She's stunning in all her glory. A breathtaking dream as the first woman he's seen naked in person. The water rises midway when she enters, sitting before him with soft curling of lips and eyes both cutely rounded and darkened with lust. She reaches for him and he flinches away, his back pressing into the smooth wall of the tub.

She looks down for a few breaths. "I usually don't notice when I make people uncomfortable until they grow angry with me. So I'm sorry if I upset you somehow, Meliodas." She lets her hand drop and looks up. "But I hope you'll still let us be close. It felt so good being in your arms and being pressed to your firm body." There's a throaty edge to her tone that reminds him of her moaning voice. A flash of want is shot to the base of his stomach, his cock straining further in response.

He ignores his need in favor of pinning her with his gaze. Something forms in his chest, hot and festering in unpleasant twists. "Is this what you do to apologize? Climb into their baths with them?" He bites out. She blinks and purses her lips in an expression that melts his insides. He wishes he could hold onto his upset with her for toying with him, but a majority of him wants to cling to her presence for as long as he can regardless of her games.

"Not really. I enjoy bathing with someone nearby. I was hoping I could share that with you if that's okay?" She asks too sweetly not to be genuine. She leans towards him, her shoulders looking flushed and the undersides of her tits dipping into the water catches his eyes. "I can even help you with your problem. I've wanted to wrap my hands around it since I noticed how much it ached for attention..." She confesses smooth and tempting as melted chocolate.

His heart lodges in his throat and he can't tell whether he's offended by her embellishment or grateful for her attempts to make him feel wanted. "You don't have to try and make me feel better about it. I know it's... small." He ducks his head and glares at his cock that refuses to calm even as he feels a deep flush of shame spread across his face. "I used to be sneered at in gym and I've heard enough women gossiping about how _'another got away _' because I couldn't satisfy her. _'There's no way such a short guy could be anything but small.'" _He spits the bitter words out as he hunches further into himself knowing he can no longer hide from her, but still tries.

He hears her breath hitch. Then her knees are easing his legs apart as she closes the gap between them. His head shoots up as panic runs frantically through him. The liveliness of her spirit has morphed into a tempestuous gale before his eyes. He's powerless against such an unstoppable force. He bends willingly to her wishes. "Women said this to you? And after seeing this glorious form of masculinity." She says fiercely and presses closer, leaving him no choice but to spread his thighs around hers.

The contact is electrifying and an embarrassing noise hitches in his throat. Her hands flatten over his chest and a violent shiver courses through him, her skin feeling wonderfully cool to his feverish flesh. Her hands glide downward strumming chords of raw desire that tingles and flares outwards long after she's moved on. His muscles tighten and quiver as he grips the bath hard enough to numb his fingers. She keeps him locked in her gaze, her hands descending further as his stomach coils with sparking anticipation.

She takes him in hand before he can work his tongue correctly to stop her. The guttural sound he makes as he thrusts into her velvety grip is both desperate and pleading at once. He never dared to dream that another's hands would feel so incredible around his cock. But it's undeniable as she strokes him from base to tip. Her touch effortlessly plucking a heavy groan from his parted lips as he arches his hips to linger her grip, feeling searing lines of tension wind up his thighs and pool at the base of his cock humiliatingly quick. "Did they want a kidney puncher or something?" She inquires out loud, incredulous.

Her question staves off his orgasm as he reaches for her hands around his cock. He's breathing heavily and unable to bring himself to pull her hands away. Her words make no sense in his head, except her obvious misunderstanding. "They've never seen me, because I always inadvertently drove them away so we... I've never had sex." He rips the bandage off and doesn't fight the tears of the pain that comes to his eyes from the exposure.

The storm recedes from her eyes and is replaced by disbelief. "No one's ever touched you?" The dreaded sadness he's so familiar with swells in her eyes forcing him to shut his own against it as a shield. He knew this would happen and yet he still took the risk. All it's earned him is a butchered heart and a non-existent sense of worth. "How could they not want to?"

He tentatively reopens his eyes to find her emotions have shifted to something more pleased. He doesn't understand the change until she releases one hand from his cock and eases her body along his side. Her soft tits caressing his arm effectively jolt his heart into spastic speeds. "It's their loss if they can't see how smart, nice, and _mouthwatering _you are, Meliodas."

Her eyes don't waver once before she wraps her arm around his shoulders and leans into him. She connects their lips gently, wrapping him in a comforting blanket of warmth. He swallows thickly, choked up from the words he never thought he would hear. He hardly believes them to be true, but _she _does. And that's enough to relax into her.

She hums happily against his mouth, then drags petal soft kisses over his cheek to his ear where she nibbles the shell. He sighs from the attention. "You're not small," she promises while tugging her hand up the length of his cock. His hips buck from the delicious friction. "This cock is long," a twist of her thumb to the head has him reaching around her waist to hold on. "meaty," she tightens her grip and he grunts when the head is squeezed through the narrow opening of her fist. "and soon to be orgasm inducing." Her slow pace escalates into hastening, twisting tugs of his dick. His muscles strain and pleasure races up and down his body, wearing into him deliciously as he moans brokenly. "I want you in me so bad Meliodas," she says in a strained voice that betrays the pleasure just stroking him brings her. "Don't you want that? Don't you want to hold me down and fuck me until I scream?"

His head lolls back, his chest rumbles, and his skin prickles with sweat as his blood pumps hot and fast to his cock at the imagery she crafts. In a snap, he pulls her roughly against his chest and steals her lips in a deep, unrelenting kiss. Because he does want that. He wants to be the man who can pound his cock into her wet heat until they're both quaking from full bodied orgasms. He feels over her slippery skin, grabbing at her sides and palming the fleshy cheeks of her ass as the building sensation at the base of his dick strikes fire in his touch. Water splashes as they move, their breathing rough and ruckus in his ears. Elizabeth would make the sounds he's kissing from her now only higher, faster, and wilder. Imagining it drives his hips fluidly into her hand, his hand coming up to cradle her cheek as he grunts around her tongue.

He feels too full again, his hips shaking. She pumps her fist faster and presses her fingers into his cheek, kissing him harder, her tongue seeking his. He whines into her, tangling his tongue with hers for more of her sweet taste that flutters his stomach. Heart pounding as the pressure mounts higher and higher, feeling as if he'll burst, he's overcome when she thumbs the weeping head in harsh sweeps. He pulls from her lips with a wobbly curse. A rush of heat overwhelms him as his thighs tremble, curling inward in hard clenches that have his mind blanking. He hears Elizabeth moaning with him casting a heady fog over his mind. He can feel her lips sucking at his throat, her hand lingering up and down his cock, and his pulse thundering from head to toe. His warm seed lands on his chest and belly as wave after blissful wave is squeezed from his being. It's somehow better than before as Elizabeth kisses and nibbles her way down his neck and slides her tits over his chest. Her nipples graze like teasing bolts that spark right to his pulsing core.

"I don't know how much more I can take..." Her needy voice gradually overcomes the thumping heartbeats in his ears. The pleasure sluggishly abates, leaving him heavy, boneless, and somehow still wanting. She lets go of his semi hardon when his hips sink back into the cooling water. Not a moment later, his lap is filled with his goddess as her lips meld with his. He kisses her back lazily, the sensation starting to feel as natural as breathing as the tethers she's woven around him gradually bind. When she breaks the kiss he loses himself in the longing swirling mesmerizingly in her eyes. "I don't know much about a man's first time except that coming before should help. It'll feel really good no matter what, I promise."

He swallows and grips her hips, feeling a little dizzy at having so much slippery naked skin over his body. "Even if I can't do what you're used to?" The words scratch up his throat. They taste acrid on his tongue and for once it has nothing to do with his own self doubts.

She skims her fingers over his cheek, her thumb coming to glide over his lower lip in a way that floods his cheeks with warmth. "You have no idea how wet your voice makes me and your expressions make me ache... or how the feel of your body vibrating with pleasure has me near orgasmic. Take me to bed, please…" She pleads with a pouty lip, her features softening in that perfect mesh of innocent lust once more that has him well on his way to being fully hard again. She's begging to be fucked by him. If that's not a tall order, he's unsure of what is. But he lifts them from the bath regardless of his worries, smiling at her girlish squeal as she clings to him. She needs this from him, and the desire to satisfy her is an unshakable drive within.

Intent on reaching the bed, Elizabeth surprises him by snagging towels from the shelve near the light dial. With a giggle she tosses one over his head and leaps from his arms. He reaches up with a squawk to tug it off, hearing the patter of her feet as she runs away. He blinks after her feeling a spreading grin tuck into his cheeks though he's disappointed he didn't get to watch her jiggling ass in her run. Toweling off with fast movements, Meliodas stumbles into his room and has to lean on the doorframe for support. Her towel thrown carelessly to the floor, Elizabeth lies at the head of his bed, propped up on the plump pillows. She's illuminated softly, her hair spilled in damp curls around her, breasts swaying gingerly with each breath.

As if his stuttered breath was her cue she looks to him under thick lashes and begins to trail her hands feather light over her body. He's entranced, his throat going dry as she tweaks her nipples. Her lips part with a gasp, her fingers rubbing lazy circles over the hardened buds, before abandoning the swells in a descent. Heart skipping away, his eyes follow their descent as curvy thighs part. Arching her hips so he can see her rosy folds and the glaze of her center, a suffering sound slips past him when those dainty fingers smooth over her mound. They swerve to her thighs instead at the last moment, leaving him with a sense of having misstepped on air. A little frantic he looks to her face to see her lips curved in a teasing way.

"If you want to know what happens next… you have to join me." She quirks her lips more and his fingers twitch. His towel falls from his grasp. Her mouth rounds and her hips roll fluidly, her fingers once steady now shaky as they move back to the apex of her thighs. "Ohh there you are in all your glory..."

Her sensual words and the way she openly roams her gaze up and down his body tugs a heated cord low in his gut. He walks to the bed from that enticement, his cock jutting eagerly towards his goal.

"The head is so pretty. Like a flushed mushroom," she coos before her tongue darts out to wet her lips. "I just want to feel it between my lips..."

Meliodas' knees buckle as he groans in aching pain. Her mouth has always been naughty, stirring him up as easily as every other part of him. But imagining that mouth wrapped around his dick has him gasping, the cords of muscles wrapped along his arms braced to the bed trembling. At this angle, he can see her more clearly and his breath sticks in his lungs. Her folds are swollen, her fingers just barely restraining from touching her need. It's a pure work of art, an impeccable flower bloomed and ready to be pollinated. He climbs onto the bed without thought, possessed with the idea that she might mean the lips of her sex—that she actually wants him to penetrate her in any way.

Her feet skim past his knees and over his calves, her thighs cradling his when he settles unsteadily between them. He reaches for her, caught in her pull and watches as goosebumps spring up along her skin where his hands hover an inch from touching. She makes a tight whimper, her hips pushing up towards him and he gives in. She's warm smooth skin under his rough hands, the contact humming through his veins and straight to his thudding heart.

"Ooh..." The little sound seeming to flow from her, draws his gaze to hers as he caresses her skin, up and down in slow deliberation. Her blue eyes are glazed over as she watches him, her fingers drawing tantalizing paths up her belly before cupping her breasts.

He groans and bows over her, his body stretching out to be closer. The heat and mouthwatering scent of her slit wafts into his face and he dips forward with little thought, his lips kissing her slit. Her silken heat jolts right to his core and his cock weeps over the sheets, his chest rumbling with his moan. He curls his fingers under her shaking thighs, pressing them up and apart as he drags his tongue over her lower lips to savor her taste. He blinks out of the haze he's slipped into at her jittering cry, his nerves jumping through his speeding pulse as he gasps, "Is this... okay?"

She squeezes her breasts, her fingers tweaking the peaks as she arches them in the air in the most sensual display of horniness he's been blessed to witness. _"Yes... _Keep going. I'll tell you what feels good..."

He's out of his element with only the vulgar comments on eating pussy and the diagrams from health ed to go off of. But kissing is something he's certain he's good at, the only intimate act he's been given the chance to practice. With a nervous quirk up of his lips, he's certain those skills may finally come in handy. So with her tender encouraging, Meliodas laps the length of her sex parting her folds with his tongue.

He stumbles in his investigation at first, stroking his tongue along her softness just to feel her and hear her shifting breaths. He follows when her hips press down, dragging his mouth to the hood of her sex where her swollen pearl begs for attention. He thumbs the skin of her inner thighs hoping not to disappoint her, then captures the bud between his lips. The breathy noise she makes streaks across his flesh and his eyes flutter shut. He groans. Her thighs bunch and she's pressing into his face with a trilling cry. His thoughts flit away in all directions as he slips into a dark ravenous place.

He kisses her slowly with heavy breaths. Teasing the slight protrusion of nerves while her thighs jump and her pleased noises catch and rattle low. He feeds off of her gasps and little whines, driving his hips sluggishly against the sheets in a pale imitation of what he really needs. He pulls away just a breath to blow experimentally. The shout she makes sends a tremor through his bones and electricity twinges up his spine. He latches onto her in haste, alternating between sucking and lapping her steadily with a relentless craving for more. She shrieks, her hands coming down to grip his hair at the roots. A broken mantra of his name soothes his nerves and spurs his dedication. In a blink he's holding her down, her thighs braced over his shoulders as he feasts upon her slit, his lips feeling swollen on her heated silk.

Her cries rise in volume as trembles elongate her body, her feet twisting on his back when her thighs slam closed. His heart beat escalates and with a rush plowing into his lower belly he's tonguing her sopping core. She yanks his hair as she howls his name. The pain mixes deliciously with the pleasure her bliss gives him. Her flutters are harsh and fast as he kisses her deep wanting every drop of the cream of her orgasm. His body feels attuned to hers, sluggish and intoxicated on the gratification from getting her off on his merit alone. His body shakes as she humps his face with choked up moans. He grips his fingers tight around her hips, drinking his fill until her peak wanes and her fingers slacken in their grip.

He releases his hold, his thumbs rubbing circles into her skin as she goes boneless before him. He looks at her, up the curve of her mound, the expanse of her flushed belly and heaving tits, to her parted lips and lidded unfocused eyes. He grinds his cock into the bed with a throaty groan suddenly consumed with his desire to bury himself where his tongue just was.

She seems to snap to life at his sound, her hands reaching for him as a broad, dreamy smile settles in her features. He glides up her body with a tremulous moan, quivering as her skin strokes flares of heat where they graze until he presses right atop of her dipping into the blaze. Elizabeth grabs around his shoulders, a hand going up the back of his hair massaging his scalp, further intensifying his heightening need. "That was perfect..." Her words curl down his throat before her hand tugs him down. Their lips slot together as he hooks a hand under her back and his thighs press under hers. Her legs grip his waist and with a yelp she swallows up, Elizabeth rolls them over.

Meliodas blinks up at her, their mouths just brushing. The calm pools of her gaze churns with something distinctly ravening around her wide pupils. Her hips settle down driving his up from the sear of her slit pressed right to the base of his cock. "Are you okay with this...?" She breathes, her words caressing his lips.

_Okay? _He has to clutch at her hips because she's rocking over the length of him, the sensation shortening the fuse that sparks bright and hot at the base of his stomach. He's more than okay having her take his cock however she pleases. His guttural moan of eagerness is pressed through the seam of her lips. She grins before her eyes fall shut, their breathing coming harsh and nearly in unison. Her hands tickle up the length of his arms leaving trails of tingles in their wake. He closes his lips around her lower one when her fingers ghost over his shoulders unable to resist. She presses back for a few breaths, their kiss reminding him of the sweetness of a summer breeze. Then she pulls away to sit up, parting too much skin as he whines in dismay.

Astride his lap she continues her teasing touch while he observes her with unrestrained want. Her eyes are entrancing, wide and almost curious as she follows the path her fingertips take. Like dancing zings of pleasure they slide down his chest and over his taut nipples. A huff of breath leaves him at the feather-light touch, his hands roaming up her thighs, then climbing up her sides to soothe his ache for her skin on his. Downwards she skims her nails over the planes of his muscles earning her a throaty hum. "You're perfect for me." There's reverence to her words and fathomless emotion built up in her eyes when she meets his gaze.

Meliodas feels his lungs are too tight to accept air, his chest to small to contain his heart. He stares wide eyed at her for a while longer as her thumbs rub the dips at his waist. She merely worries her lower lip as her cheeks pinken further and he knows she's being honest. His heart swells so much he chokes on it, his hands moving to scoop hers up unsteadily as he pulls himself up. Mouth full of cotton he rasps, "You can't."

"I can." She fires back and slips her hands free of his to mold one to the shape of his cheek. A petal soft kiss to his mouth and he sucks in a stuttered breath. "I do." She sighs and her other hand goes between them. He grabs her waist when she lifts up. He feels a little lightheaded when she closes her fist around him. "Let me show you how much…"

The head of him teases her center causing his muscles to twitch and his skin to pinch with dry heat. She drives herself down and he feels her wet heat stretch to accommodate him, her body wrapping around his dick like a snug furnace. _"Oh, fu-fuck Elizabeth!" _He shouts from deep in his chest, his touch rough as he palms her ass when she falls into him with a keen in his ear. It's simply indescribable the way joining her feels, like he's just given her a part of himself and is fuller because of it. He turns his head and plants his lips on her skin, trailing up her jaw and sucking the spot just under her ear, her hair tickling his nose with her intoxicating scent. He needs to worship this woman that wants him as much as he wants her.

Elizabeth mewls, her hands coming up to grasp his shoulders as she lifts herself up. The sheer sensation of her walls stroking his cock streaks right through him, tearing a weak noise he buries against her collarbone. Down then up and over again until she's bouncing in his lap with loud hitching moans as her tits sway in his face. His nervousness falls away as this pleasure cracks him open. His hands roam all over her heated flesh, gripping and squeezing, and thumbing her ribs when he guides her into a bow so he can suck a pebbled nipple between his lips.

"Yes! _Oh, Meliodas, yes…" _She whimpers and falls down harder.

Every return of his cock home is greeted by the slight squeezes of her pussy. He grunts around her breast, cheeks flaring as he sucks one swell, then the other. Each nipple is nipped until she's shaking with trolling cries, each flushed peak teased with the sluggish drag of his tongue as she gazes down at him with untamed desperation.

She manipulates his desire with ease, sending it surging through his skull. His muscles bunch when he growls into her cleavage holding off his impulse to fold her under him and plunge his cock into her for the orgasm of a lifetime. With restraint, he reigns himself in, choosing to support her, lifting and tugging her body down on his. Flesh smacking swells with the sounds of their heavy breathing. In a blink, she bows in a graceful curve bracing a hand to his thigh. The bed starts to creak as she humps his dick with shallow thrusts, throwing hypnotizing rolls of her hips into the rhythm as a blaze swirls up around them.

Sweat trickles down his temples as he reaches blindly to strangle the sheets in blanched fists. His moans coming fast and unbidden as pressure builds with light speeds. She's a breath stealing vision, her tresses wild around her head and sticking to her skin where sweat has started to gather. Plump lips part to allow those gut stirring noises that has him gasping. Mesmerizing bouncing breasts, swollen rosy peaks, and a bead of sweat rolling between them he wants to follow with his tongue. A soft belly, a trim waist, and the moist sheen of his dick disappearing into her body. He makes a strangled sort of cry, the pressure inside like a geyser, boiling and imminent. His tongue flails around uselessly, nonsensical words tumbling past his lips as he reaches for her.

Elizabeth doesn't slow, her pace hastens relentlessly driving him into the bed. The pressure bursts forth, so relieving his ears ring and his heart hums a forceful beat. His head hits the pillows and his neck strains as her name explodes past his lips. His back arches up, his hands finding purchase around the meat of her thighs, his own pulling up behind her. The seams of him are bursting. The pleasure flows through him in crushing waves jolting his hips up into her with no end in sight.

Over the ringing in his ears he hears her voice rising in a crescendo, her breathing catching faster as her core restricts with an intensity that has him desperate to bury himself in her harder. She bends over him, her soft, damp skin sliding over his heaving steamy chest as she frames his head with her hands. Her mouth is a wide circle from which no sound escapes, her eyes squeeze shut as she goes still then begins to quake. His eyes flutter shut and he howls again, tugging her mouth to his as he pumps his cock in harsh jerky thrusts into her rippling core. The feel of her peaking around him, milking him for all he's worth, is an overwhelming discovery he never wants to be without.

His name croaks from her when his hips slap into her inner thighs, their bodies repeatedly rocking and writhing against each other, wild and insatiable. They cling to the rapture for as long as it lasts. Gradually it tapers off leaving residual quivers throughout his frame as she sinks atop of him, their lips parting as she rests her head beside his. He feels worn and loose. He loops his arms around her back, her body rising and falling from his attempts to catch his breath. His thoughts are drifting, not yet coming together, but he turns to press a kiss to the side of her head knowing intrinsically that's what he wants.

A snore greets him in response.

A lazy smile lifts the corner of his lips and he tightens his hold. Internally sensing around, Meliodas feels calm, not fearful he might've driven her away. He gave his virginity to the woman that's consumed him and filled his heart and regret is nowhere to be found. Only the urge to hold her closer and drift off to sleep. But he feels their mixed fluids seeping over his balls and decides a little clean up is in order.

He slips free of her with a mournful hiss through his teeth before laying her out beside him. In an instant, his attention is ensnared by her sleeping features, his fingers sweeping under her bangs then trailing down the curve of her face before he even realizes it. He leans forward and steals her pliant lips in a ginger kiss that lasts a heartbeat and an eternity all in one. His fingers shake against her cheek and words spill past his lips he can't swallow back if he tried. "Stay with me, Elizabeth..." Heat burns up his neck and prickles at his cheeks at the sheer yearning for her to be his, one that eats away at his soul.

Elizabeth merely sighs, her face a picturesque display of tranquility.

Instead of staying to see if his words take form in some impossible miracle, Meliodas leaves for the bathroom to wash his cock off and return with a warm damp towel for Elizabeth where he parts her thighs and towels her clean with care. A proper bath can be had in the morning, for now he shuts the curtains and returns to her side pulling the blanket over them. His heart skips when she snuggles closer, her body curling into his side. He knows he's in deep, deeper than any other relationship he's had prior. It has nothing to do with the sex and everything to do with the way she regards him, speaks to him, and how she makes him _feel. _

Weary in more ways than one, Meliodas curls an arm around her and finally allows himself to sleep.


	3. Closeness

Thank you JakcklynnFrost *hugs*  
Thank you all for reading!

* * *

A smell tickles his nose and prods at him until he's awoken. Slowly Meliodas opens his eyes and instantly notices how empty his arms feel. His heart wrenches, sending panic tearing through his veins as he sits up and looks around. There's a warm glow coming through the curtains brightening the room. Already he knows he's overslept for work. The sheets are still messy where she once was and the towels litter the floor. The scent of eggs and strong coffee permeate the air. His tight chest loosens and his heart gradually eases. Last night wasn't a dream. He had sex with his dream girl and they both were satisfied by it. Nerves tingle through his fingers and tighten his stomach for an entirely different reason as he glimpses at the spot Elizabeth slept in last night. Although things couldn't have gone better, it would've been nice had her face been the first thing he'd seen this morning.

In place of fretting about it, he climbs out of bed. The unsteadiness to his limbs is absent and in its place is a laxness to his body he hadn't realized was needed. He feels utterly at ease—the usual stress he'd feel about being late, the messy towels, bathroom, and kitchen is absent—and he knows it's from the multiple orgasms she gave him last night. The shame he once felt for himself now shrinks to something more manageable. Another thing he has to thank her for, but first a trip to the bathroom is necessary.

Once relieved and freshened up a bit he takes a deep breath and enters his living room. His eyes spy her in the kitchen humming a nameless tune. It's smooth and lilting and has him stepping closer to get a better view of her. Once in the dining room he has to stop up short unable to help ogling her form. She's in a button down off white shirt of his, the sleeves curled up to her forearms and the end covering mid ass cheeks. She's bare otherwise. Hair pulled up in a messy ponytail and creamy skin enlivened with a slight flush, Meliodas swallows thickly as his pulse ticks rapidly under his skin. The sweatpants he pulled on tent heavily as his dick rises to attention. When she starts swaying her hips to her imagined song he groans deeply. "Is this a dream?" He finds himself questioning as this is too good a sight to exist in his life.

Elizabeth squeaks and some of the eggs she was stirring is flicked from the pan to land on the black stove. He doesn't even flinch at that. She giggles and turns her head towards him with a dazzling smile. "I'd be really disappointed if it turned out to be." She admits before her eyes make a descent over his body like a lingering caress.

Meliodas shivers. "Good morning." He manages thickly.

"Good morning indeed," she breathes. And he spots the way her thighs rub together feeling his stomach clench low from a rush of need.

She looks away just long enough for her fingers to pinch a knob. The click of the fire turning off is deafening. Elizabeth faces him fully and he can make out her pink nipples poking against the material with ease. His limbs strain as he restrains himself from moving, his breath coming faster with his surging arousal.

She looks at him with unabashed lust darkening her lovely round eyes. "I tried to make breakfast, not really knowing what you would want. Is there something specific I can give you?" She asks while running a finger over the button on her chest.

She's never one to beat around the bush. It's obvious she knows what he wants and desires it too, but he can't seem to move or speak. Locked in place for fear of losing control of his senses.

Elizabeth closes the distance between them and he moans at the heat of her body only a scant few inches away, the air sparking between them. Her fingers curl behind his neck, her thumb brushing just under his ear. He drifts to her, his clothed cock pressing between her thighs and her clothed breasts touch the top of his chest. He doesn't reach for her as he gazes up at her, feeling stretched too thin and too close to snapping. Now that he knows what sex with her feels like he craves it with the intensity of an addict and that's worrying to him.

"You can be as rough as you need. I'll tell you if I want you to stop." She says silvery and sweet as if she's saying she doesn't mind him having the last of her favorite dessert.

It's knee weakening and a pained needy sound is wrenched from him. "How do you know I need it rough?" He asks in a low hoarse voice.

She sweeps her thumb back and forth over his skin until he's practically vibrating in place from holding back. "Meliodas you're a kind gentleman who gets all nervous and blushy whenever I come onto you. You'd never ask for more than you're given even though I've made it clear that I want you so much..." Her voice falls to a hush at the end as she lifts her other hand to run through the length of his hair, his eyes fluttering from the sensation. "But I can see it in your eyes... the beast you've contained for too long. Let him free when you must, please..."

He reaches up and yanks the shirt apart. The buttons pop and plink to the ground before he forces it off her shoulders so the creamy expanse of her skin is exposed without hindrance. He hears her breathe his name like she's praying to a god as he feels a shiver go through her. He loops an arm around her before her knees give out and uses the back of her head to guide her face to his. He slants his mouth over hers with a sharp breath wasting no time in plundering her taste with his delving tongue. His hold on her is tight and unyielding. The warmth of her pliable skin on his as she crosses her arms over his back and her whimpers into his kiss has him crazed with hunger. His blood is boiling as he sucks on her lips and devours her mouth. He pulls away from the pure invigorating taste of mouth to suck and nip a path down her neck, needing more.

Elizabeth yelps when he abruptly whirls her around and bends her over the dining room table, the glass fogging up around the places her skin touches. She squeals from the contact, her entire body shaking. But she doesn't protest, instead she breathes his name high and pleadingly. He huffs a short breath, the loose pants feeling too constraining against his heated flesh. He forces them down before stepping out of them and behind her, where his dick makes contact with the slick heat of her folds. She makes a tiny cry as her hands scramble to hold onto the edges of the sturdy table. Meliodas nearly buckles from the bolts of searing fire gathering at the base of his cock and radiate to the rest of his body. _"Fuck… _I'm so glad you still want me..." He rasps taking his cock in hand and pumps his hips so the head teases back and forth between her folds.

She mewls brokenly, standing on the tips of her toes so her pussy is all but offered to him. His stomach swoops and his heart pounds at his ribs at her wordless message. He moves away from her clit, lining himself up. He snaps his hips forward and sinks home. She wails while he shouts out, his body bending over hers as his knees go weak for a breath. She's just as snug as before, surrounding him like hot silk. White hot pleasure drives him to hook his arm under her and pull his hips back. He returns with force, his hips slapping her round cheeks. Again, he yanks back and thrusts in, quickly beginning to emulate a piston as he fucks her with no restraint.

Elizabeth screams beneath him as he grunts and groans, his lips falling to her shoulder blades in hot, panting kisses. Her scent is thick, like the balm of summer, driving him crazy as he trails his hand up her stretched arm and sucks bright spots to her smooth back. Her body feels just as intense as when she sheathed him the first time, a guttural growl rumbling from his chest as he strives to move deeper in her accommodating body. Their joining sounds wet and lewd as he caresses her trembling belly. He forces himself to lean back and takes hold of her hips when her knees give out from his relentless thrusts.

_"Oh Mel-Meliodas, yes! Fuck me!" _She hiccups in a steadily unraveling voice, her pleasure causing his head to loll back as liquid fire pours through his veins filling him up in search of an escape.

He looks back down not wanting to miss a single twitch from her thrumming body. With her spread out for him this way in the morning light, his hand roams down the curve of her spine and comes to rest at the small of her back. He wets his lips when he sees the bounce of her ass and his slick cock disappearing into her body. There's a rough primal noise that snaps out and he only knows its from himself by the way his chest thrums. He feels himself slipping as her cries gradually thin and her body starts to tighten. He wants so desperately to make this building sensation last, to savor it. But sex is still so new that he chases after it instead. The pressure coils in swift hot passes bending him at the waist as he fucks her in shallow pumps.

The table starts to screech against the floor surely leaving scuffs he doesn't give a fuck about. Elizabeth twists her torso and her head to the side so he can see the way her pleasure contorts her features stunningly. His core lurches as he bears down on her with reckless abandon. A strangled cry of her name is as relieving as the gushing heat he forces into her body. She sings for him a long stretched noise of bliss, her body squeezing his cock with enough force to leave him shaking and breathless. Her convulses are powerful, her sweaty form bucking against his, urging him to loop her waist with his arms. He holds his hips against her ass, grunting through every ripple that coaxes bursts of seed from his body. He kisses her shoulder adoringly, listening to her sobbing moans and their heavy breathing as they ride out overwhelming wave after wave.

He relaxes, feeling bone weary as he tries not to crush her beneath him. His muscles burn in an exquisite way from having been the one to give the most this time and he smiles lazily against her quivering skin, utterly pleased. Elizabeth still moans softly, her pussy sluggishly fluttering around his half hard cock. That's how he notices his thighs are wet, something dripping on his toes.

"I've never had... an orgasm like that before," she says a bit hoarsely.

His brows furrow. "What do you mean?"

She reaches for his hand and pulls it up to where she's turned enough for a breast to be grasped. He fondles it eagerly as she looks at him with eyes lit up like glimmering gems in the sun. "You made me gush."

In a matter of moments his face feels steamy from his blush. He's heard that term before in the bar from drunken men spilling about their exploits. His jaw slackens as he struggles to form a proper response. "I couldn't have-that's not... I-I—"

"I thought you would know by now how incredible your cock feels to me." Her voice melts over him warm and gooey.

His doubts had crept up without his notice, but her reassurance settles his breathing and adds to the fullness she's responsible for in his heart. He pulls her up and turns her around guiding her to her back on the warmed glass where he follows her descent to capture her lips. He kisses her mouth languidly raising his hands to hold her face and thumb her cheeks as she cradles his chest with soothing fingers. His feelings for her well up and pour through this connection. He wants her to be his and his alone. He wants to be able to wine and dine her, to hold her hand whenever the urge arises, and to laugh and talk with her wrapped up in one another.

Their lips make soft smacks as he sips her leisurely, her little sighs and smooth taste stirring him as he grows long and heavy between her raised thighs again. He could come again certainly, but… He pulls away with a tiny grin and says against her pouty lips, "We should probably have something to eat. In fact, why don't you go run a bath and freshen up while I clean up here and warm breakfast up for us."

"Or… you can have that bath with me and I can help you with the rest." She offers instead, grabbing at his biceps with a massaging touch.

He forgets how to work his mouth.

A wide triumphant smile overtakes her features and she slides to stand on the floor twining his hand with hers. He follows her guidance wordlessly, his dick bouncing the entire way, ready to fill her pussy again.

* * *

Breakfast was... questionable. But Meliodas would have it every morning for the rest of his life if it earned him the sight of Elizabeth humming to a nameless tune with a happy grin on her face in their kitchen each day. They'd migrated to the couch afterwards with a fluffy blanket curled around them and the TV across the room playing well known classics that lit Elizabeth's eyes up like the brightest of stars. They'd been pressed together, their skin still bare with his heart unable to rest. But he'd loved it. The thrill that kept his heart jumping from being so close to her and not having a moment of awkwardness arises.

There wasn't an instant of tense silence. If they weren't chartering about the topics they'd yet to brush upon, then they were watching Annie sing about better tomorrows or Charlie explore the chocolate factory with his grandfather. And when lunch had rolled around they'd made it together. Fingers brushing in tingling sparks as they passed ingredients, shy looks and tender smiles shared as their shoulders touched. He's never felt this happy before, has never felt so drawn or connected to someone as he does Elizabeth. And he's certain he never will.

* * *

He can't pull himself away from her lips. An innocent peck became quick successive kisses which then morphed into lingering brushes. His skin had warmed as she'd shifted closer to his side, their mouths now slanting in tandem. Her slick tongue is driving him wild, darting out to tease his only to retreat, tempting him to chase after it. It's why he's breathing so rough, his hands curling around her waist trapping her against him as he ravishes her mouth. Her moans are like drops of dew, each precious and ginger as he works to carefully extract them from her being.

His hands do a bit of wandering being in such close contact with the perfection of her warm, creamy skin. His arm is wrapped under her, the hand sliding upwards to map out her twitching belly while the other caresses her thighs. She gasps, a victory on his part and presses her dainty hands flatter against his back and circles the one on his stomach. Her fingers just barely graze the head of his aching dick. Now he's the one to suck in a breath, her grin against his mouth feeling just as much a victory as the one before it.

He encounters a tit, the soft heavy swell making his skull pound a bit from the rush of blood flow. He kneads it while their lips make the softest of sounds, tweaking and plucking the hardened peak until she starts to whimper on his tongue. His hips give a short thrust from the sound as a swirling and tightening of electricity hums at the base of his cock. Down that hand goes as the other is already gripping her inner thigh. Elizabeth is quite intuitive, stretching her leg over his knee and raising the other so her knee is raised to the sky. When his fingers dip along her lower belly their lips part and a string of spit extends between them before her tongue sweeps out to break them apart. He looks in her eyes, the blue depths shadowed by thick lashes and sweeps his fingers over her skin. She presses her hips up with a breathy moan. He flexes his arm, tugging her back to his lips as his hand makes its descent.

A shock forces his heart even faster, his surprise never seeming to wane when he notices just how damn wet she always is for him. Her hot silky folds entice him as he lazily strokes up and down the pearl that's engorged with such need. Elizabeth moans softly her focus on the kiss weakening, allowing him to dip further into it and properly devour her. Her taste slides down his throat and her hips rolling the most erotic rhythm against his hand which has him breathing hard through his nose. His cock twitches, oozing precum down the shaft, smearing his belly and her hand.

That hand closes around him not a moment later as her nails skim at his back. He grunts into her, the sound turning into a whine of pleading when her velvet touch strokes him sluggishly. He needs it slow, however, as her scent of arousal starts to greet him, thick and heady, his muscles threaten to start tensing. But he fights back the sensation, rubbing her a bit faster as he does the same to her tongue. She tightens instead, breaking the kiss to whisper, "Oh god…"

Heat eases down low in his gut, his hand sliding down further to rub at her entrance. He waits only a heartbeat before reaching forward to mark her cheek with panting kisses. One, then two fingers are sunk in.

"Fuck," she gasps and he grins against her skin. No filter as usual.

Her fingers squeeze around the tip of his dick, and he chokes, giving her more precum to work with. Feeling a bit intoxicated on her, he feels her softness, shivering at the way her walls grip him eagerly and tries to discover what she likes. She leans her head against his, her hand sliding down his shaft. "Curl them when you go in." He nudges her face with his nose, kissing her with gratitude when she turns. He follows her instructions, feeling something rough and swollen against the pads of his fingers. The sound she emits is like a drop of molten lava to his dick. He doesn't want a teasing drop though. He wants to be encompassed.

So he does it again. Again. Then faster. Her breathing hastens from her nose. More of those delicious noises scrape the base of her throat. Her thighs part further and her hand grips the base of his dick. Meliodas digs his fingers into her inner thigh consumed by the wet sounds her pussy makes around his fingers. It's not long before she breaks their kiss again, her head bowed back so he can suck on her throat like a man absolutely ravenous. "Harder! Paleese!" She cries out, voice raising higher, and her hips thrust into his hand.

He's not sure if she means what he's doing to her neck or her pretty little pussy, so he does both. She screams in her throat, her fingers coming around to grab at his side, the nails digging in as she jerks his weeping cock, her fist slapping his balls. Throngs of heat embrace him as he mouths her skin with reverence. His left hand moves harsher. Her breathing turns rasping. He knows she's about there, can feel it in his bones as she locks herself wider with frequent quivers. He watches her from the corner of his eye, breathing matching hers as he's brought higher and higher above an epic plunge.

She suddenly squeezes the base of his dick as her head twists from side to side with sharp little cries. "Meli… no no no I... gonna…!"

He drags his finger up to her pearl with swift twists assuming that's what she wants. The keening squeal she makes is something he'll have committed to memory for the rest of his life, as well as the way her release sprinkles over the black sofa from between her shut thighs. He keeps rubbing her through it, despite her quaking and jerking body, hearing a roaring in his ears and a bundle of pleasure opening up in his gut, swallowing him whole. Only when she gasps out as if freed from suffocation does he let up.

Waves of good, _intense, _gratification rolls through him—has been since she started to come—only now does he acknowledge it. Rolling his hips with her fist latched tight, he quivers and groans shakily, his stomach twitching erratically. He lifts his head. Her mouth meets his. They just touch parted lips, breathing each other in until his spasms end. They sag together, her hand releasing him as their foreheads mesh. Her eyes appear dazed and her lip is nibbled between her teeth. "I'm sorry for making a mess of—"

"Don't." He hushes her with a thumb to her lower lip, tugging it free. "Don't apologize for how good you feel. Not with me." He begs of her.

Her eyes become round and he brushes her smile. The flush in her cheeks deepen and he feels a flash of need spike through his rigid cock as he huffs a nervous laugh. "Should it feel this way? This constant want to…"

"Fuck each other?" She coos in a sweet honeyed cadence that has him squirming. She giggles at his flustered reaction and strokes his thrumming belly. "I don't know… But since we both want this, we should do this for as long as we need."

"You might need to clear off your schedule for the next few decades then." He breathes, caught up in her.

Elizabeth looks at him with a quiet intensity that makes him believe he's said too much—_ wanted too much. _She climbs atop him, flush to his body, and pulls him into a kiss that lasts and lasts. An answer he hopes he's inferring correctly and not simply dreaming up as he grabs her hips and sinks deep where he knows he belongs.

* * *

They must've dozed off at some point because he's awoken by vibrations at his hip. Slightly muddled he curls his arm closer around Elizabeth pressed to his side, then uses the other to grab for the disturbance. In the late afternoon light he sees its his phone which he promptly silences. He'd forgotten he'd dropped it there when Elizabeth had arrived. He pays it no mind for a moment and instead looks down to the goddess asleep against his chest. Her plump lips form a small circle, her messy hair is tousled around her face, and her warm breaths tickle his chest. He gazes at her, the vision he'd hoped to wake up to that day and feels something slot into place.

He tries to swallow past the wonder brimming from his chest and carefully brushes his knuckles over her cheek. A breath he hadn't realized he was holding rushes free at the contact. He feels as if he's bound to her by a single, resilient, adamantine thread. She's the star he'd been drifting aimlessly in search of, the being he'll forever orbit until she fades away and he follows right after. His eyes well with emotions he can't describe, his lips curving up as he cradles her cheek and bows down to kiss the crown of her head while she sleeps. He sucks in a steadying breath of her as a few tears of disbelief roll down his cheeks. "Is this what it's like to be in love?" The words trickle off his tongue as gingerly as the currents of a spring.

Elizabeth shifts with a slow breath, her hand sliding down his chest to his stomach. He discreetly swipes away the moisture on his face in time to hear her sigh, "This has been the best date of my life... if only it could last forever."

He hadn't misheard. She always says what she means. His heart dashes with the speed of a jackrabbit at the possible realization. Tentatively Meliodas captures her wandering hand and lifts it to his mouth where he plants a kiss upon each knuckle. She raises her head to rest her chin on his chest. Blue eyes gaze at him, soft and fond.

He takes a chance. "I can arrange that."

She blinks once then a crease forms between her brows. Her nose flares dusting red and her eyes become glassy and wide. As much as he'd like to believe those are tears of joy forming, Elizabeth looks nothing short of devastated. "I... I'm an escort, Meliodas, to pay for... for my papa. I ca-can't..." She sucks in a tight breath, her voice so thick it chokes her.

He disregards the cinder blocks chained to his ankles dragging him down in the pits of despair and clings to her words. He pulls them into a seated position and holds her face between his hands sweeping away her tears as they fall. _Fuck. _He's made her cry like the ultimate failure he's always been. "Elizabeth, I will pay for every bill." He vows fiercely. When she opens her mouth to undoubtedly deny him, he rushes on knowing he's merely digging a deeper grave, but also certain this will be his only chance to speak his wants to the woman he adores.

"If that ma-makes you feel uncomfortable, I've been thinking about grooming my business so it can run efficiently without me—lessening my presence there s-so that I can... open up a bar with living quarters above it where you could waitress and live there. With me." He takes a quick panicked breath when she clutches his wrists and her eyes flit between his, searching. "Your salary would obviously go towards paying me back—which really isn't necessary! But I'd take care of you, and we could... We," His voice withers to a frail, tiny pitch as a black hatred is turned inwards upon himself. "Elizabeth?" His vocal cords fail him and he mouths her name more than anything.

She sniffles and her lower lip trembles before she extracts herself from the little nest they'd created on the couch. The world falls out from beneath him. His star moves from out of reach, leaving him to suffer alone in the bitter-cold, bleak expanse of nothingness. He captures her waist in a desperate grasp turning her to him so he can bow his head and press it to her stomach. His entire body quivers as his devastation wells up and spills out of his clenched eyelids dripping hot tears. "Don't—! Ignore my stupid suggestion. Nothing has to change. Or we can go back to phone calls if you want! I just... please—"

"Shh, it's not that at all." Elizabeth says in a winded voice and her hands go to the back of his head. Her fingers slide through the length of his hair, her nails brushing his scalp in soothing passes that attempt to reign in his shaking. "I have to think about this, okay? It's so much to take in." When she tilts his head up, he allows it and peers up at her divine features, skittish of daring to hope for anything more than what he's been blessed to experience thus far.

She kneels and her hands keep their eyes locked as she goes on, "Everything that's happened between us has been more than I could've hoped for. There's just something I have to get rid of," she cuts herself off with a sharp shake of her head, then fills his lap with her body and draws him into a slow, deep kiss.

He whimpers into her, hands pressing firm to her back for her warmth because the thought of losing her has left him glacial to his core. She hadn't crushed his heart in her delicate hands, though it still aches as if it's been mishandled. However, he'd take this pain and more any day, because it means his love was real—the happiness he experienced was reality for a short time. It's better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all after all.

She kisses him with ardent flares, sucking the breath from him as she winds her arms around his shoulders. "Please don't think I don't want every word of what you said. Just... Can we go out tonight? I want to hold onto you a little longer before I deal with..." A streak of raw terror makes her pupils shrink for a moment before she ducks her head down.

He follows her gaze with a twinge forming in his jaw as he brushes his hands up and down the goosebumps that have formed along her arms. Whatever he's feeling matters nothing in comparison to her safety and happiness. "I can help with whatever you need. This isn't going to happen overnight, so there's time." Their eyes lock and he prays she can see that she can trust in him.

She sweeps her hands over his back. "I know, but," he watches as her eyes steel and a pier of blue flames forges in her eyes, her strength leaving him on awe. "I have to do this on my own. I was taken advantage of when I was most vulnerable, but I can escape. And then my father can get full treatment and you and I can have more amazing dates. There will be nothing to stop us."

He hesitates, wary of what this man she's frightened of might do if he discovers she's severing ties with the agency and thus him as well. The feeling is like racing cracks up a crumbling wall, wildly out of his control. His breathing thins and it must show in his eyes because she holds his cheeks and touches her forehead to his like a balm to soothe his nerves. "Do you trust me?"

"I do. Definitely. _Unendingly." _

Her eyes dance with glee at his unbidden response. And he can feel it in the way her body tenses that she's about to move, thinking he's finished. So he glides his hands to her lower back to hold her in place. "But, could you at least tell me about what happened. About him?" He presses then add, "I won't step in if you don't want me to." He lies as evenly as he can already considering a plethora of ways he could step in discreetly. Her safety is paramount to him and he'd feel lower than excrement if he looked the other way after this.

Elizabeth stares at him for a few moments, silent, though her eyes display the racing of her mind. She winds up sliding to his side to press against him, her arms wrapping around his torso as he adjusts himself. Her head is pressed to the side of his as a clever way of hiding her expression while he holds her. "My father had grown ill not long after we moved here. I was only eighteen at the time. I had to find a way to make a lot of money with little experience, which led me to the agency. A nice guy, Howzer, who still works there, took my virginity so I would be somewhat prepared for what the job requires." She pauses and starts to rub her hand over his belly and he lets go of the tension he hadn't realized had gathered.

"I want you to know it wasn't painful if that's what you're worried about. But it wasn't as good as I hope I was able to make things for you last night," she tells him, her lips grazing his skin in a soothing manner.

He drops his lips to her crown and caresses the length of her side, hearing worry edge her tone. "My first time and every other time after is perfect because of you. Don't worry."

Her lips linger on his collarbone sweetly before she secures her hold around him again. "I was the escort of a handful of men after that, learning how to please a man with my mouth, my hands, and my body. It was never about what I wanted or might like and I was okay with that, because the money was helping me get my papa medications and procedures and putting food on the table. But then, not long after I turned twenty, he hired me."

Just the shift in tone alone, like her very spirit and bubbly personality has been drained from her by force leaving a quiet, resigned shell in her wake, has pangs of alarm searing through him in corrosive bolts. That's nearly four years for this man to have had his claws sunk into her. Meliodas' ears begin to ring a bit as he shuts his eyes and forces himself to breathe.

In a drone, she carries on. "He was different in that he didn't immediately try to usher me to his bedroom. At first, he always had dinner prepared where he sat down and talked to me. He seemed so enthusiastic during those times, like talking to me was all he needed, and I was happy to oblige because I really didn't have many people to talk to." He can hear a bit of self loathing pitch her words low before that fades with her next breath. "He was objectively handsome in that he was tall, broad, stubbly, and had long hair. I wasn't attracted to him, but I knew enough on how to fake it by then. Oddly enough he didn't take me the first few times he hired me. He would just kiss me all over, finger me, or eat me out, getting me off like that's all he wanted. I was so surprised and relieved by this that I felt I could trust him."

All at once her hands fist and her body goes taut like a wound spring before she shouts, "I was so stupid!"

The drops of hot tears against his chest set him off more swiftly than atoms smashing. He lifts her chin up so she's forced to look at him. The steam from the blaze barely contained in his chest hisses through his teeth, "No, you're not, Elizabeth. That bastards a fucking snake who preys on vulnerabilities. This was never your fault." The heat of his stare pins her, drying her leaking pools from his unwavering focus.

Her back straightens and her eyes harden as her eternal strength continues to stand tall at his belief. "Okay." She presses her mouth to his, caressing his lips with gratitude before she snuggles back into his arms. And although he outwardly wrangles his fury under control by pulling her legs over his and folding her against him more securely, inside it rages like a severe maelstrom.

"He got me to agree to a contract where I would be his exclusive escort. It meant more money and only being with a man who seemed to want to only make me come, why wouldn't I agree?" She explains and confusion causes him pause. If she's supposed to be off limits... how was it possible they were paired? He doesn't interrupt her knowing how difficult this is for her to share to begin with. "But he knew about my papa, I'd told him beforehand on one of our dates. From then on, he arranged it so that I was his for two full days—Saturday and Sunday. The change in his demeanor was instant especially when he took me to bed after the contract was made final. I was suddenly his and his alone. That night... he gagged me, pinned my torso under his hand, raised my waist up, and... He's massive, so it hurt, but I kept quiet."

Meliodas feels scooped hollow as she shivers, his fears confirmed when he'd give anything for it to be the exact opposite. There's a jagged wound in his soul that floods his eyes with tears and leaves him reeling from the agony of it. He bears it silently, his fingers twining with hers wanting to take the weight of her pain unto himself.

"He didn't like that. He wanted me to moan for him. And when I didn't, he hissed things like, _'My wife can't take it, but you damn sure will.' _and _'You're so beautiful. You were meant for this.' _I'm his cock hungry whore that's punished if I don't enjoy having my pussy stuffed. So I had to learn how to make him come quickly and make him believe I had too, otherwise I wouldn't be able to walk until our next meeting."

She then proceeds to tell him as he hides his anguish twisting in his gut sadistically, that she wasn't the goddess he was assigned to. "A new girl, Zaneri, who's mild mannered and sweet had been your match. But I have seniority over her, and convinced her that I had free pick of which dates I had and... I took your request." She sniffles as her words from before gain clarity. "But I couldn't actually do so, otherwise it would go on my records. So I had the payment for the date canceled the night I first talked to you, and I... kept contact with you." Her fingers dig into his side as her emotions spurt free in a reedy tone, her body climbing up his as her hands slide up to weave in his hair. "I wanted you so badly, Meliodas, but I wasn't meant for you!"

He silences her with his lips, their tears tasting salty on his tongue. He kisses her with a mere fraction of the yearning he feels for her, soothing her despairing groans into calm, breathy moans. "You are the light of my life, Elizabeth. I want to make you smile and laugh and feel free. Let me do that for you. Let me take care of you." His voice wobbles around his heart as he begs and dries her tears with gentle brushes of his thumbs.

The fading sunlight brings a warmth to her eyes that has butterflies filling his stomach with erratic flutters. Her nod is almost shy until she launches herself back into his arms, her nose tucked right to his cheek. "Yes! I want that more than anything." She agrees.

He lets himself feel the eruption of elation that sends his spirits soaring, prickling across his flesh and melts him into effervescent goo. And for just a moment, he basks in the future he'll strive to grant them, one where they run a homey tavern as Mr. and Mrs. Liones. But when he concludes that moment, he endeavors to handle the man that raped his girl for three years and the company that allowed for it to happen.

"Would you like to go out with me?" She asks in her rising mood with pink cheeks and ember warm fingers dusting up his belly. "I want to have a good night before you go to work tomorrow and I leave to break my contract."

His belly tingles and he grips her hips in a futile attempt to stop his cock from hardening and lengthening. When she stares at it with unabashed fondness, his cheeks feel numb from the surge of heat. "Of course I will. We can go anywhere you want!" His voice does a strange nervous lilt that only spreads the tingling flush over his skin.

She doesn't answer immediately, locking her eyes with him. There's a darkness to her eyes like meeting the gaze of a contemplating predator. He feels trapped, her pounding, the feeling intensifying when she leans right to his face. He's breathing embarrassingly fast, loving this feeling of knowing he's hers and that she can do anything she wants with him. When she takes his lips between her own, a weak whimper is sucked from his tongue as a needy quake runs through him. He expects her to climb on his rigid dick, but instead she pulls back with a bright little chirp of, "Okay! Let's get ready then!" all traces of dark intentions gone.

He's pulled behind her on unsteady legs where she insists they dress one another. It's nerve wracking having her velvety hands situate his erection in his pants and her knuckles deliberately skim down his chest when clasping his buttons. It's also wonderfully intimate, being able to slide her skirt up her thighs where he kisses her belly button, and buttons her frilly blouse over her naked breasts under the watch of her eyes. Feeling this close to her, like she's an extension of his being, is one he's undeserving of but will cherish for the rest of their lives.

When she bends over to collect her shoes by the door he's drenched in molten need, groaning his ache with little restraint. Her pretty pussy lips protrude towards him begging for his attention, and he can't believe he forgot about her panties. "Elizabeth. Panties. Need." His brain may as well be short circuiting for all the sense he struggles to make. The longer he ogles her, the easier it is to see her need bead at her entrance, and realize seconds too late that she should've straightened herself by now. She's tempting him on purpose.

With fluid grace she finally stands releasing his lungs from a vice of flames. "I soaked them yesterday at the start of our date. I can't put them back on," she tilts her head blinking too innocently at him.

He works on sending oxygen to his brain. "Then please put on a pair of my pants... I don't want you out there so exposed." He manages.

"I'd be safe with you," her smile is soft and breathtaking like the spreading of white petals under the silvery rays of the moon and he's certain his heart swoons. "But I'll do it for you." She pecks his cheek when she passes and a pinch to his rear has him flustered.

He sucks in a slow breath to fight off the feeling and takes out his phone. Clearing the notifications from missed calls and new emails, he first searches for the notice of a canceled payment that somehow slipped by him. It's there in the spam and he blows out a disbelieving breath. If he'd seen this after they first started talking, he would've treated her with less caution and they could've gotten together sooner…

"Meliodas? Which drawer do you keep your boxers in?!"

He nearly drops his phone. "El-Elizabeth!"

A peal of giggles follows. "Alright… I guess I'll have to wear your pants without a barrier…" She sounds as if she's remorseful of this fact, but she gave in quickly enough for him to know that's not the case. And he loves her all the more for being herself.

Attempting to shake off the heady fog that comes with knowing she'll be marking his clothes, he moves to the email that's never been opened before. Her image unfolds in high resolution wearing a mustard yellow long sleeve blouse, a high waisted blue that splits up the middle to reveal orange shorts. Her smile is blinding, her form surrounded by daisies. He saves the picture and exchanges his generic wall paper for it mentally kicking himself for having waited so long to meet her. _'We could've been engaged by now,' _he tries to internally joke despite how his hands sweat and his heart races at the desire.

Going back to the email, there's a synopsis of her personality that he's starting to know like the back of his hand and a list of what she will do and what she won't. He grimaces from the throbbing stain of his dick at the many, many things she'll let him do to her and forces his eyes to the column of what she refuses, to better clear his thoughts. It's a calming feeling seeing he hasn't crossed any lines… until he reaches the very end.

_No barebacking. _

That's all they've been doing. He'd gotten a fresh box of condoms before work yesterday, at the time feeling stupid for thinking he'd have use for them. He hasn't as Elizabeth sought to have his dick in her frequently without condoms even being brought up. A lopsided grin curves his lips as it well and truly dawns that this was never a job for her. He feels woozy and floaty all at once as he allows his front door to bear his weight. He went from being single and destined to die alone to being in a committed relationship overnight. If that's not worth taking his lady out for a good time, he's not sure what is.

She emerges from the hall then with a black pair of his pants under her skirt nearly reminiscent of leggings. "You ready to go?" She bounces on the balls of her feet at his side, her arm hooking around his to twine their fingers.

His smile broadens as he feels at peace. "Ready as I'll ever be."

* * *

A candlelit dinner is what they end up having that night. It was, however, a bit of a fiasco when Elizabeth accidentally spilled the wine and he'd followed up by knocking over the lovely vase of roses. After laughing about it, they had grabbed ice cream cones and strolled through the streets sharing instances of their childhoods. And upon arriving back at his place, they had snuggled under the covers and just existed, tranquil and in the comfort of one another. Elizabeth drifts off first and he holds off following after her. There's a phone call he must make to an old acquaintance.

The phone is answered after three rings.

"Hey, Ban? It's Meliodas... If you're still in the Manhattan area, I've got a favor to ask of you."


	4. An Unexpected Blow

I have to thank JacklynnFrost as without her suggestions this story could very well have stalled. Thank you ❤❤❤  
Thank you all for continuing with this! It means so much to me.

* * *

Howzer grins at her and she can almost imagine a tail wagging eagerly behind him. She smiles back politely even when knowing what he wants from her. "Morning, Elizabeth! Here to help out the newbies some more?" He stands from his place behind the high desk and moves to her side.

Giving advice to the new women is something she's thought of as vital after her time with _him. _Keep things strictly professional. Don't share anything about your personal life. And even if the sexual experience is good, don't enter a contract unless there's a way to get out of it prematurely without penalties.

She shakes her head and logs in her information as his heat warms her side. He smells a little of sea breeze—something she had thought was arousing enough to get her through her first time when in actuality it's nothing in comparison to the sandalwood edged with brimstone that her cute lover smells of. "I'm actually here to see Meredith." She tells him feeling her lips curve up as the remembrance of the way Meliodas had held her outside his building floods her mind. His powerful arms around her waist and his eyes softened to loving pools keeps her worry towards this meeting at bay. She's been facing the strife of her world alone so long it's her greatest comfort to know she won't have to do so anymore.

Howzer's purple eyes bulge as he stumbles over his tongue. "M-Ms. Meredith? There's no need to go see her! I mean, I'd be more than happy to help you if you need something outside of M—"

"I have to see her, because I'm leaving the agency." She quips with a spreading grin not at all perturbed by the disillusionment being shattered in his eyes as his jaw slacks into a gape. Elizabeth had always tried to view him as nice, especially since he was gentle with her that first time. But her politeness has unwittingly fostered some sort of illusion in him that makes him believe he has some sort of claim on her through her virtue. It's squeamishly familiar to the way _he _views her and she wants no part of it any longer. So with a few waves of her hand she bids goodbye to Howzer and strides further into the building.

The ruby red walls and proactive paintings of the most popular women of the agency both past and present are things that have become ingrained into her memory from years of striding through these halls. She passes through the information hub where the data for requesters are taken in and eventually matched to a goddess. Further in there's a section of black doors, some with empty knobs and most with rosy ties dangling from them—those from which ecstatic moans and grunts can be faintly heard. Men who don't want dates and simply request a 'meet and greet', per say, can have an available goddess behind those doors. She's been in one of those rooms once and wishes she had chosen to stick with that albeit less lucrative option, then shakes her head in rejection of that idea. The path she ended up taking led her to Meliodas and there's no way she'd change a thing that could potentially alter their meeting.

Further away from the sounds of rigorous sex, the building gains a sterile fill. White walls with beige floor mouldings and the symphony of keys clacking as men and women update records, hammer down financials, advertising, and the works. She glides past this on light feet and stops at a door with a gold plaited label drilled into powder blue wood.

_Meredith Deity _

Rapping her knuckles against it three times, Elizabeth hums absentmindedly and rocks on the balls of her feet.

"Come in." Her voice rises through the cracks of the door sliding across his skin like an icy, satin ribbon.

Elizabeth enters the room she has been in twice—when she joined and again when she entered her contract. Sunlight cascades through the window from the left where trails of smoke weave through the rays from the cigarette holder poised between manicured fingers. Meredith's frosty eyes pierce her from beneath the fringe of gentle wavy crimson. Her bridge of freckles bends as she smiles invitingly. "What is it you need, my dear goddess?"

Elizabeth's back straightens and she feels her carefree aura becoming a compact wall of ice. "I've decided to leave the agency and terminate my contract prematurely." She's sure to state without wavering.

Though from the biting way Meredith's smile becomes, she knows this won't be as clean cut as she'd hoped. She's just entered and arena with a god armed with only Meliodas' feelings for her as her weapon. Elizabeth smiles sharp as a blade. That's more than enough for her to wield and set herself free.

* * *

"I'm no longer a goddess," she relays through the phone while sweeping her hair behind her ear as the wind picks up.

"You'll always be my goddess." He breathes so quiet and reverent she's certain he doesn't think she'll hear.

But she does.

She stops dead in the middle of the sidewalk the flow of people moving around her as her heart quivers and the cool breeze fans over her heated skin. Her usual forward nature is shuttered beneath a coy enticed lover. Her Meliodas has no idea how much of an effect he has on her.

"And there were no threats?" He continues louder and she swallows her thudding heart to put one foot in front of the other.

She rejoins the flow headed for her apartment. "Nope." Except for the immense debt she's now incurred of course. Meliodas said he'd pay for her father out of the goodness of his heart, but he doesn't need to know about this. She'll deal with it somehow.

"And you're okay?"

She opens her mouth, but out of the corner of her eye she sees a flash of white in a storefront window reflection. She swivels towards the window and peers in as if the heart shaped box of white chocolate has caught her eye and in the glass can barely see him. He's tall and ripped with a slant to his crimson eyes.

"There's a man following me." She says slowly, certain. She'd caught a glimpse of frosted mint spikes after departing for the agency this morning only because that kind of hair stands out like a beacon on a crowded street.

"What? _Where are you? I'll come right away—!" _

"I wouldn't want you to do that, unless I'm trying to get you to any way." She rolls the words off her tongue while tracing the heart with her fingertip, her thoughts delving towards her taking him into her mouth as a cute blush spreads over his skin and his needy sounds fill her to the brim.

There's a moment before her name is squeaked through the phone. "Th-this is serious!"

She straightens back up after assessing the stranger further. "He doesn't seem bad. More like he's a dutiful sentry." She giggles at the prospect while continuing her set path.

There's a sharp inhale in her ear and her delight swells, making her body weightless as she walks on air.

"Elizabeth… how did you know?" he says sounding both sorry and unwilling to yield if she were to ask him to.

She turns the corner heading towards the less attended to part of the city, ignoring the eyes of the men that roam over her body with apparent hunger. "I've learned how to read men pretty well. And my instincts tell me you're in need of a thorough cock sucking for doing this for me." She points out with a breath of enthusiasm having to bite her lip to keep her smile from splitting her face. She's never felt so comfortable and cozy and yet at the same time jittery and in need of someone so much. She's never felt each heartbeat so clearly, each plump thump being a dreamy sigh of his name. Being in love with Meliodas is such an intense heady sensation she no longer wants to live without.

His voice extends like a breathless plea in her ear. "Elizabeth… You don't need to repay me for making sure you're taken care of. That's what I live for." He rumbles the end with such wholeheartedness, her breath leaves her and her throat tightens around her speeding heart.

"It's not a repayment. It's what I want to do." She tells him softly, feeling the world falling away the way it always does when it comes to him.

He swallows and she can imagine his tongue sliding across his pink mouth so vividly, her core grows slick and it takes everything in her not to moan out right. She's only a few minutes away from her apartment. She can be patient until then where she'll have him listen as she touches herself with him breathing heavily and moaning with her over the phone. "If th-that's what you want…" he croaks and she knows he wants her mouth on his dick too.

She presses her cheek closer to the phone as if it's his cheek she's leaning against instead. "Yes, you're everything I want." She professes, intending to fight for her place beside him by standing on her own two feet. And that means handling the burden she caused herself.

* * *

In spite of Elizabeth's assurances that the agency hadn't threatened her to stay, Meliodas knows that can't be the case. She'd had a contract after all. He simply assumes Elizabeth believes he meant he'd only pay for her father—or that's what she's led herself to believe so she doesn't come off as a burden to him. He's afraid to let her in on the full depth of his emotions. How his need to attend to her every want or need or whim and to see to her protection and bliss is a constant presence underneath his skin, surging and scratching at his seams with such ferocity he can't even breathe past it at times.

So he doesn't feel guilty when he contacts the billing department of the agency on Elizabeth's behalf two days after she broke her contract to acquire the necessary bank information where he pays her debt in full. Being sure to keep the records of the transaction, Meliodas feels a bone deep relief that her rapist can no longer hold this over her head. Whatever money she makes at the florist shop Ban says she's working in will be her own, he'll make sure of it.

He brings up the suggestion of pressing charges against both her rapist and the agency a few times as the days go by though she always tells him, "I'm free from that now," and, "There's no need." But he thinks the opposite, especially when she stays at his place each weekend, her phone shut off and a jumpiness reminiscent of a wary bunny takes over her that's alien to the personality of the woman he knows. Even safe in his home she still believes this man will find her and force himself on her as punishment. She won't even give up the bastard's name as if knowing he'd find a way to make him pay one way or another. It's enough to make Meliodas want to spit fire and at the same time want to tug his hair free at the roots as his sorrow pours free from clenched eyes.

Maybe that's why tensions finally erupts between them a little over a month from when she walked away from _Supreme Deity Agency. _

His fingers are flying over the keys of his laptop propped on his lap as he answers the few inquiries his COO has sent. It's his first day stepping away since he's started grooming his employees to the way he wants things done—just to see what specifically he'll need to work with them on as he gradually begins to slacken his reigns in the coming months. The furious jiggling of keys in the locks puts a rod in his spine as he lifts his laptop on the living room table.

The door swings open not a moment later and a tempest blows in. Her expression is tight, her eyes stoney gems piercing him where he sits. Her lips are pressed thin and her cheeks a deep pink. The door bangs closed under her force jolting him to his feet. Her keys are flung to the table beside the door as she shirks off her purse, her jaw visibly tightening as the silence flays him. He's seen so many sides of her, but this angry version of her is not one of them. If he wasn't terrified she might be about to cut him from her life, he'd admit this fiery side of her has him weak in the knees.

"Guess what I found out today?" She stalks towards him, stopping when there's an arm length of space between them.

He doesn't answer, feeling the thin ice shifting beneath him.

"My boss was kind enough to let me off early so that I could go make my first payment towards my debt-only to find out it's been absolved for nearly a month now." She pelts her words in his direction, her shoulders stiff.

Finally understanding what this is about, his stance strengthens and his expression smoothes blank. He doesn't make any excuses as he responds evenly, "I told you I would pay for every bill, Elizabeth. I meant that."

"But you didn't have to!" She cries out taking a step closer, their opposing forces arcing in the shrinking distance. "I appreciate what you've done for my papa. But my debt to _him _was mine to pay, Meliodas, because I was stupid enough to sign the dotted line!"

He doesn't notice he's even moved, only that the halo of warmth the sunlight casts upon her reveals every facet of defensiveness in his narrowed eyes that swallows up his view. "We've already gone over this. He's a piece of _shit _who took advantage of you. You're not to blame!" He growls deep, breathing faster as her perfume enhanced scent is dragged into his lungs.

"And that's why I wanted to do this! To stand up to him once and for all!" The air crackles with volatile tension.

"That was nearly a hundred grand, Elizabeth! Slaving away for years and years wouldn't have proven _anything _. Cutting all ties and moving on with your life? That shows him that he means _nothing _to you." He can't tell if the heat of his irritation or that of her body is what's burning away his rationale. But he can hardly give a fuck at this point as her breath fans tingles across his lips.

Her nose flares and her eyes flash as she jabs her finger at his chest. "I didn't ask you to take me on as a burden!"

He seizes her waist between his hands as his inhibitions are blown to bits. "Do you really think I would just sit back and watch you suffer?! I'm not like him, Elizabeth. I actually love you!"

Her lips smash against his, harsh and demanding. It's an implosion of unbridled want. Her hands paw at him, groping and squeezing at his arms and chest as he cups her neck. He presses into her searching lips, opening his mouth when her tongue slides deliciously at his seam. There's an acute tug then another and another, sending buttons popping and clacking across the floor, adding another ruined shirt to the growing collection. He moans against her mouth feeling the scorch of their argument spur the wild beast within. Meliodas forces his shirt down his arms with frantic movements as their lips break free. He flings the thing off, the material whipping through the air as her hands grab at his sides feeling wonderfully cool and entrancing against his too hot skin.

He reaches for her when he's freed, yanking her shirt up and she abides, lifting her arms and exposing her creamy flesh to the bright glow of mid morning. In a flowing cascade of silver, her hair falls around her face gorgeously tousled. His dick throbs with wet needy pangs at the display in a constant urgency throughout his being as they breathe roughly. She breaks him from his trance, grabbing the back of his neck to pull her mouth back to his, instantly drawing his hands to the clasp at her back. The irritating bra is ripped from her body as she bites his lip with a groan. His mind grows hazy with a sensation he hasn't fully experienced before—a primal need to dominate his feisty woman as he backs her to the door.

The door bangs in its frame when he pushes her against it, their mouths meshing and slanting, forceful and quick. Her hands are frenetic as they descend, grabbing and pulling at his belt. Their lips snap apart when she looks down to focus on her hands. His nose skims across her velvety cheek, his lips dragging along the swell afterwards. His pulse jumps under his skin in time with his straining dick driving his lips to the spot under her ear where he sucks and nips harshly. When she mewls high and breathy her movements falter. He jumps on the opportunity like a salivating wolf, shoving her skirt up her stomach and hooks his fingers in the thin material beneath.

Elizabeth rebounds by offering more of her creamy neck for him to devour with a sugary whimper of his name. His skull pounds with his rushing blood and his fingers slow like trickles of lava over the supple skin of her thighs. He groans as he latches onto her pulse point, lapping and kissing the spot until it's bright red. He feels the guttural moan right under his wet lips and her nimble hands open his pants just enough to pull him free. A tremulous curling of flames bundles low in his gut then radiates outwards sparking him into motion. She's forced up the door by the spread of her thighs, her harsh breathing catching as he manipulates her how he wants her. In the movement she's forced to grab his shoulders for balance giving him the time to grab her thin panties and tear them open. The tatters dangle from one trembling thigh, his eyes peering up through his fringe to see the fiery heat in her gaze far from dimming.

He wastes no time in slamming his hips up into her and relishing the full bodied quake that overtakes her as she cries out. She's scolding and practically dripping with arousal as her walls grip him snug, the sheer perfection of her dragging his hips back quickly so he can slam right back home. The door bangs. Another uncontrollable quake. Her desperate moan soaks into his bunching muscles enticing him further as he struggles to inhale fast enough. Meliodas bows his head to her proffered chest, clenching her waist harder as he starts thrusting into her pussy in abandon.

Her legs cross behind him as her breathing starts heaving. Her breasts bounce with such vigor, one nipple teasing his lips until he sucks it between them and worries it in his teeth. Her nails dig into his shoulders as she tries to snuff out her rising sounds, shoving her inner thighs onto his pistoning hips in a show of the fire still raging through her. He stumbles then braces his stance with a wider spread of his legs, not willing to risk dropping her even in his frenzied state. Instead, he cups her ass with one hand letting her hump his dick as he grunts and groans on her tit. He pulls his mouth away and pinches and tweaks the rosy bud with his hand while biting his way to the other. His skin refuses to loosen his irrational ire like an inescapable vice that urges him to fuck her rougher and faster.

Elizabeth bucks abruptly, her ass presses to his balls as she quivers and hushes a scream. Unwilling to pause for even a second, his skin beading sweat as the pleasure she gives him rubs him raw, he holds her to the creaking wood between his torso and hips. His hands sliding against the cool wood, framing her head. Their eyes lock and the vehemence of her gaze draws his heating nerves at his core tight, knocking a needy moan from him before he can even move. Her lip is bitten as her core gives a brief tremble around him. He surges up deciding to do that for her as the bangs kick up again.

_Thump. Thump. Thump. _

Her breathing is rickety around her nonsensical groans, puffing on his mouth as he drags her lip between his teeth. His mind whirls from the intense blaze swelling around them, his mouth moving to connect with hers fully and lazily as he rumbles at how wet they sound—_ how wet she feels. _Her thighs start to shake and her nails make a descent down his back. Like a match is struck, the flames lick at his skin, his back bows, and his balls start to draw taut. _"Yeeesss!" _He hisses skywards wanting her marks on him, the idea driving his cock into her like a jackhammer.

Like a duet their sounds stretch higher and faster in tune with the smacks of their skin. Her nails scrape upwards faltering his rhythm as his pleasure goes up notch after notch. She tangles her fingers in his hair jerking his gaze to hers. There's an unraveling in her eyes that has him swallowing and his hand diving between them in search of her clit. A charge goes off as her head slams backwards. Her entire body comes to life against his, twisting and rolling as her pussy ripples and squeezes, her relief oozing down his cock. Her noises sound almost pained as he bucks into her and circles her slick nub. Her rapture engulfs him as a rush from his cock leaves him feeling both numb and too much, each thrust wringing grunts from them as he fills her with his seed.

She pulls his lips to her mouth trading kisses between each breath and he scrambles to catch hold of her waist in a quivering grasp. He stills his hips and lets her tug her pussy sluggishly up and down his pulsing dick in the most erotic rolling of hips, milking him with the residual jolts of her peak. He hums into her mouth pleadingly, letting her work his cock until she eases all the way down his shaft and comes to a rest. They finally run out of steam.

The spiking anger was worked out through his cock and now he feels utterly silly and worried all at once. Whatever blood left that's not warming his skin and focused in his cock packs right under his cheeks. He peers up at her from under sweaty bangs only to be caught in her gaze. She looks almost weepy the way her eyes crinkle and her nose flares. But the softness of her smile and the way she brings her hand up to just barely brush her knuckles down his cheek spells of something so much more. It steals his breath and causes his own eyes to prick.

"I love you too you know?" She tells him so tender and sincere tears roll down his cheeks before he can even blink.

Those words mend every hurt that every scarred his soul, a warm sense of peace blooming around him cozy and secure before seeping inwards to filling him up. It's wholly undeserved. His head shakes from side to side as his voice thickens and his tears drip off his chin. "I'm so sorry. I sh-should've said it over dinner or whispered it in your ear as we ma-made love. Not thrown it carelessly at you during our first fight."

"You still can." She breathes brushing away each tear from his cheeks. Her soft, infatuated gaze never wavers. In fact, it deepens.

"What?"

"You still can. Take me to bed and make love to me... whisper it in my ear with each thrust." She tells before pulling her bottom lip between her teeth a bit coyly as her cheeks go apple red. His heart skips then leaps and bounds. "I love you and you love me. That's all I really care about." She finishes and his answering smile can't be contained.

He plans to cherish her for the rest of their days, the first of many starting when he brings her to his bed and fulfills her wish.

* * *

He's on the precipice of slumber, having struggled to get there to begin with for seemingly hours. His body unrestricted, his bed too cold. The need of breasts against his back and arms around his torso as he's squeezed like a teddy bear throughout the night the main reason why. He's gotten so used to Elizabeth spending the night that when she doesn't, sleep is fitful.

When a silver haired goddess melds from the darkened hall draped in moss green silks that wave around her thighs and hug her pert breasts, he knows he's dreaming and welcomes the fantasy with open arms. Her eyes dance with amber streaks at his lethargic gesture and she hops into the bed. The impact jostles him and he tips away from the gentle careen towards sleep in time to feel her head nudge under his as she hooks an arm over his waist and presses the other to his chest. Her leg stretches over his hip as he gathers her closer in a mix of shock and delight that hardens into icy tendrils of worry prompting his question. "Is your father okay? Is that why you're—"

"No, he's fine especially knowing that I've left the agency. Making improvements each day, they tell me." She reassures, her lips caressing his collarbone with each word.

He waits for her explanation, though he won't be displeased if she doesn't have one. He's been itching to have her closer since they professed their love—the weekends plus three nights out of the week isn't cutting it. He lets his eyes fall shut, breathing her in while tracing random patterns at her exposed back, determined to simply enjoy this bonus.

"Can I stay?" She says so quiet he's certain he imagined it.

But he felt the tickle of her breath on his skin in time with her words. His pulse, already quick, accelerates to a constant whir. His words to her that very first night come clear to his mind as he sucks in a shaky breath. He tucks her in closer and kisses her hair. "Yes. You don't even have to ask. Everything of mine is yours, Elizabeth." He tells her earnestly when her fingers start to tighten at the skin of his waist.

Her lips press to his skin like the whisper of a butterfly's wings, and he tingles all over as if graced by a warm blessing. He doesn't ask her what's happened or why she wants to stay, he just cradles her throughout the night as they fall peacefully asleep.

* * *

He has movers bring her things over the next day turning the penthouse into a stark clash of mess and order.

Her clothes are hung in disarray on her side of the closet, standing out against his color coordinate vests, button downs, and pants lined neatly on the opposite side. A modest collection of perfumes and jewelry are haphazardly arranged on the dresser across from the bed. Sex toys are thrown in to the bottom drawer of the nightstand making him squeak each time he opens it in search of his sketchbooks. Odd knickknacks and mix matched photo frames appear on most surfaces in the living room depicting a growing Elizabeth and a stocky bearded man with brown eyes as kind and enthusiastic as Elizabeth's. Flowers fill the vases eliminating the stuffiness he hadn't realized existed. Her feet often find their way into his lap when she comes back from the florist shop earning a massage as they catch up on each other's day.

_Their _penthouse becomes the home he always wanted. Or maybe it's just Elizabeth.

* * *

Ban hasn't informed him of any suspicious sightings since the nearly two months he's been guarding Elizabeth and she herself still refuses to press charges believing it to be over despite how hard the weekends are for them. He's happy she's been taking steps to move on, but he can't let it go, not with the frail thing she reverts to at times from a loud slamming of a door, an unexpected call to her phone, or even when he accidentally startles her. The look of keen horror that streaks across her eyes before they dull as she goes utterly still twist several knives in his gut.

Conventional methods simply won't cut it anymore and he decides to invest in a private investigator to dig into the workings of _Supreme Deity Agency, _and a hacker by the name of Gowther to find him the name of the man who hurt his woman. It was assured it wouldn't take but a day or less—at least from Gowther—to find the information he desires, and Meliodas feels an inner fury towards himself for having waited this long to take action. Only to have it tempered when he knows he did so because he wanted to abide by her wishes.

So he decides to take her to whatever place she wants in hopes it'll soften the blow when she discovers what he's done. Hopefully, it's long after he's personally inflected torment, a thousandfold to what's been done to his Elizabeth, and then contacted the one simply known as "Merlin" to have the guy finished off. For once, Meliodas is grateful for being the son of Daemon Lucifer as it's not only afforded him access to untold wealth but also put him into contact with people he can now put to good use.

* * *

They wind up at an old diner with a retro feel practically seeping from its foundation. An old jukebox plays something from the 80s near the counter with a kaleidoscope of colors illuminating from its curved frame. There are plump booths with high walls and tables with ruddy table cloths resting in the corners of the room. The place is cozy though no one other than the staff appears to be present. The scents that permeate the room evokes a hunger that guides them to the counter where a slim woman with blond hair and crystal blue eyes waits with a pencil tucked behind her ear.

Before he even has a chance to glance at the menu, the woman with a name tag that reads "Jenna" leans forward with a knowing glint to her eyes as she looks him over. "This is the man you were telling me about that's got you sweet on him?" She asks in with a thick Midwestern lilt to her words.

Elizabeth nods with enthusiasm, her arms tightening around his at her side as he ducks his head with a quickening heart. "Yep! I'm the luckiest girl in the world to have him." She admits with a sincerity that leaves him bashful and hoping his hair is just long enough to shield how hot his cheeks have become.

He can see the pleased warmth in Jenna's eyes and counts her as a good person in Elizabeth's life. Her cool blue eyes focus on him again. "He's dapper one too… And good in bed?"

Over his choked sputters Elizabeth repeats, "I'm the luckiest girl in the world."

A boisterous laugh bursts from Jenna. "Well alrighty then! You take good care of this one, ya hear?" She abruptly threatens in a blink.

He squares his shoulders and gives a firm nod. "I plan to for the rest of my life."

"Now that's what I like to hear! He's just as skittish as you described, but when it comes down to business he's as quick as a whip!"

Meliodas turns to Elizabeth to find her already gazing at him from under her lashes. He knows that look. That look will have him spread out across a table to allow her a quick ride if she asks this of him. "It's one of the many things I love about him."

Disregarding Jenna's watchful gaze, he leans up and kisses his girl as gentle as a summer mist, pouring the fullness of his heart into the soft opening in her lips. When she smiles against his mouth, he sighs blissfully through his nose and presses firmer against her, knowing she's understood.

_I love you too. _

"Alright you lovebirds, settle down. I'll get started on preparing two of the specials." Jenna says over the faint sound of voices humming from outside.

He and Elizabeth part and she kisses his nose before whispering, "I need to go to the restroom real quick. I'll be right back." She slips from his grasp and disappears through a door to the far right of the room.

He takes a step after her drawn to her like a magnet, but forcefully shakes himself out of it. They've been nearly inseparable since she moved in and he's grown quite used to it. He focuses on the menu as a distraction to see exactly what they're eating. The entrance breezes open a short distance behind him, footsteps pouring in. He wouldn't have even given the newcomers a look had a familiar voice not piped up behind him.

"So, Meliodas, you've gotten yourself a new one? Is that the—Elizabeth was it?—that my wife spoke of not long ago?"

The inflated voice of his pompous COO elicits a lengthy sigh from Meliodas and he wonders if this guy is really the right person to have making decisions for his company in the future. He turns around and looks up to the man with a raised brow. "What I do with my personal life has nothing to do with you Mael," he scoffs and seeing Jalamet at the jukebox with a bouncing little boy, adds, "Or my secretary."

A biting look flashes through his brown eyes before he grins and rubs his stumble. "You're right. My mistake. Excuse me." He turns on a heel and heads back to his family.

And it's odd how quickly he relents. Perhaps in hopes of staying in his good graces? Though he doesn't give the encounter another thought. Meliodas faces the counter, for once not feeling an ounce of self pity at what they think of him. A smile presses into his cheeks knowing it's because Elizabeth has a way of smothering his insecurities. Pegging down the food items, he mentally calculates the price he'll pay after the meal, then moves out of the way when Jalamet and her kid approach with no sign of Mael. Moving to the table at the back right corner of the room as a disco beat bumps through the room, Meliodas sits with his back to the window and waits.

A man steps out to assist Jalamet and her boy and a pinch of worry pricks at him before he brushes it off. Tapping his fingers on the tablecloth as his eyes follow the two to their booth across the room, he feels it's been ages since he's seen his lady, but knows it's been less than ten at the most. A couple arrive and meander to the counter. He sits back in his seat as his stomach knots with the invisible ticking of a clock. He knows he's being ridiculous and possibly clingy and forces himself to wait to investigate just a bit longer. When the man who'd served Jalamet arrives with two piping meals, Meliodas smiles at him thoroughly distracted, looking to the place Elizabeth disappeared through and noting Mael's absence. Coincidences start to come to light. One by one realization tumbles into place, sickeningly.

Objectively handsome, tall, broad, stubbly, and had long hair.

Mael is nearly impossible to get ahold of on the weekends—or had been until recently-despite his overachiever attitude.

His wife and kids have been left unattended.

He's been absent for nearly as long as Elizabeth has.

His phone gives a long hum which he ignores as he knows who's name Gowther has sent him.

The chair screeches as he rises, startling the server but he pays the man no mind. He cleaves through the distance between his table and the door she disappeared through in a scant few breaths. His adrenaline pumps through his veins, sending nauseating scenarios of what's happening to her through his mind. The lively service room is swallowed up by the muted hall, his panicked breathing and thundering heartbeat the only things cutting through the palpable tension. A few steps and his clammy hand wraps around the cool metal door of the ladies room. It's locked. But by some divine intervention, the latch bolt wasn't all the way in place and it sighs open under the pressure he applies.

One look in and his hearing fades to a drowning ring. His sense of reason chips away until there's nothing to fill his shell but a wrathful demon out for blood. In the mirror's reflection, tear tracks are carved into her bruised cheeks descending from her vacant, battered eyes. The beast rumbles and decides this man's lifeblood will more than suffice as an atonement for this heinous sin.

Meliodas has been locked willingly behind an inferno of rage, only allowed flashes of reality. He scarcely hears Elizabeth's shrill screams. His knuckles sear, the bones creak. Warm, slickness smears along his skin. There's a wild snarling almost reminiscent of his own voice. Cool metal closes taut around his wrists.

* * *

Meliodas is held behind bars that night. He pounds at his bars and stalks the length of his cage letting his fury take the forefront as a numbing agent, afraid if he doesn't he'll be swallowed up in something worse. He feels the bubbling sensation regardless, making each breath harder and harder to take. His steps falter. The void is vast and bleak, creeping from the edges. His back hits the wall his legs shaking as he grips strands of his hair. His chest is restricted, his vision swimming between the gritty gray of the floor to the pallor of her face, red, purple, swollen and _empty. _

There's an inhumane keening somewhere in the background, his skull panging as hair is tugged free. He squeezes his eyes shut and tightens his jaw until his teeth creak from the pressure. The darkness doesn't help, becoming filled with his worst nightmare—her face so blank and unfeeling as Mael violates her despite her body jerking away with each thrust, in obvious agony. The sound comes through a tunnel, stretching and warping in such torment his stomach wrenches feeling oily and slick. His skin is like ice, covering and insulating the nauseating heat within as his sobs bring him to his knees.

_"I'm sorry! I'm s-sorry!" _He wheezes, words scratchy, and he sways, unable to breathe. "'s my fault. Couldn't protect you. _It's my fault." _There are shards in his chest that shift deeper as he curls into himself. He had a duty to her, and he failed. She's in the hospital surrounded by doctors and police officers and he's not even by her side to get her through it. A howling swells, pounding in his ears, and he realizes his anguish is bleeding out from the shattered place in his chest.

The gate to his cage creaks open. He doesn't acknowledge it. He can't stop screaming, trapped in the cycle of opening that door and seeing her spirit torn to tatters with a sole look into her eyes.

Hands grasp his shoulders and his head rears back banging the wall. The pain ripples through his skull too light of a punishment. So he does it again and again and...

"Meliodas!" His body is shaken forcefully. The vision behind his eyes wavers, then peels away like a grainy film as a ginger haired man with round spectacles and a robust mustache takes its place.

"Escanor?" He croaks, blinking tears from his eyes. His lawyer is a kind hearted man who's known to become an indomitable lion in the courtroom. His presence means one thing.

His blue eyes are emphatic pools as he squeezes Meliodas' shoulders tight. "I'm so sorry."

He pulls his lips up in watery imitation of a sorrowful smile and sniffles. "Me too."

* * *

He reaches the hospital Escanor had informed him she'd been taken. The entrance is a wash of bright lights and moving bodies one of which sits slumped in her chair, a heavy blanket draped over her shoulders. He stops in his tracks, feeling barbed wire coil around his stomach from knowing she deserves better than him to turn to. But when her gaze drags his way, her look hooks a tether around him and tugs in clear desperation. He goes to her because that's what she wants and he'd crawl over glass shards if that was the only way to give her what she asked for.

He stands right before her, absorbing the patched up bruises and split lip, shoving his automatic response to be anything but the pillar of strength she needs. But he feels a crack when he lifts a hand and so lightly it may as well be a breeze trails his fingertips down the curvature of her face. His failure to her are marks left on her face and undoubtedly to her soul. Her eyes never looking away from his gain a sheen of moisture that shatters into fat, dripping tears. She grabs for him, pulling him between her legs as she aligns her less battered cheek to his belly and proceeds to weep, openly and loudly.

Instinctively he cradles her head and cards his fingers through her hair forming a consoling shield as his emotions rush up his throat and _stick. _"I'm so-sorry, Elizabeth. I let this happen." His emotions are relentless as they burn his throat and throttle each breath but he keeps his tears at bay.

Her body trembles harder. Barely held together by his touch, she _leaks, _words spilling free muffled into his stomach as the bottle of pills in her grasp digs harder into his back. "He was so angry. I tried to run, but he grabbed me and I started to scream. He h-hit me and hit me and I went quiet hoping he'd stop. He's n-never…"

He shushes her gingerly, losing the battle with his tears as his blood runs like icy water through his veins. "You don't have to talk about it, Elizabeth."

But she doesn't seem to hear, her voice breaking up in the way he won't allow her now that he is here to hold her together. "And then he started pa-pawing me and kissing me and saying he'd fo-forgive me for allowing him to… He didn't use a condom. _He didn't use—!" _Her voice dissolves into the sounds of someone small and defenseless who's been through so much and just wants everything to _stop. _

He sinks to his knees and holds her face in a delicate grip, thumbing away her tears. "Take out your anger, your hate and resentment on me. Share your burden with me-no, let me bear it all. Do whatever you want. Just… just please don't blame yourself for this." Reaching out to her with his voice, his touch, and his words as he sees something vital being dragged down in the depths of her eyes, slipping out of his reach as her ethereal shine dulls.

Her cries gradually soften to little hitches in her breathing as she slowly shakes her head. "That's just it. I don't feel anything anymore."

His star fades right before his eyes, and he follows right after her.


	5. All Roads Lead To Rome

We've reached the conclusion! First off, I want to give one last thanks to my beta, JacklynnFrost. I know for a fact I probably would've just let this be a simple two shot without your words and guidance. Thanks for believing in me.  
I hope you all enjoy how this story ends up!

* * *

After that outburst, Elizabeth barely speaks.

She eats the food he cooks her, she climbs into the bath with him, and she curls up at his side on the couch or the bed. But there's no spark to her. It's like her soul has been contained in an inconspicuous piece of hay and thrown into a perpetually foggy forest where her body moves on autopilot aimlessly in search of it. She does what she's supposed to do, taking her medicines on time and visiting her father. He takes her every time, asking her if he can follow her to his room so he can see the man in hopes of begging for his forgiveness. She declines each time. He doesn't push her to give more than she can handle.

So dedicated to caring for her some things begin to slip by him. Meals are missed, his clothes become unkempt, he barely sleeps alternating between watching her slumber and drinking his guilt away temporarily in the darkened living room. He can hardly focus on work, hiring the first people to apply for the positions of COO and secretary as Jalamet quit and Mael was put behind bars—Harlequin and Diane King. He makes the choice to deposit a premium sum in the account requested for the services of Merlin. A few years behind bars is not enough for Meal's sins and as Elizabeth isn't there to urge him otherwise, he makes the decision without a second thought.

The world loses its luster as the days slip on by.

The waiting area has become a familiar place to him. The quiet hum of footsteps and passing conversations at this point is white noise to him. Before he knows it, it's been the better part of an hour that he's been staring at the same spot on the wall across the room. He normally would've stayed under for the entire hour until her form emerged from the throng of seamless faces, but something out of the ordinary captures his attention.

It's the jingling of a leash latched to a small dog. A little girl who can't be older than the age of six is grinning grin ear to ear as she encircles the furry dog's torso with her arms and giggles as it licks over her cheek. He feels a touch of something that isn't anguish in his chest as his lips pull up just a smidge. The little girl, he's certain he's seen her before... and with a start it occurs to him that she passes through during his waits here. She'd just blended in as apart of the monotony before due to her lack of smile and dull eyes. She's obviously a patient because of the hospital gown she dawns though now she stands out as she grins into the dog's fur and murmurs for only it to hear...

"Meliodas?"

He jumps, eyes going wide at the silvery tone he adores so much. For just a moment he relishes the sound as it's so exceedingly rare these days before rising to his feet to fully meet her. The bruising in her features has faded and the gash on her cheek well on its way to vanishing too. "How was your visit?" He asks while rubbing his hands up and down her arms.

She looks off to the side, her eyes slowly slipping out of focus. "It was fine..."

His lungs seize at seeing her withdrawing again before he wrestles that panic down. He cups her cheek and her eyes flick to his. At a snail's pace he leans up towards her making sure she understands what he's doing. She blinks slowly before lowering to meet him and a shiver wracks through his frame feeling almost too much to his starved nerves. Has it been that long? He pulls back when she does, breathing a bit like he's just run a marathon. She is too.

"You know I love you right? With everything I am." He tells her in a fierce whisper, thumbing her healing cheek.

She nods, her eyes closed, before they open to half mass still dull, but her voice is colored. "I love you too."

He accepts this for now, lacing their fingers together as they pass the dog, girl, and a staff member heading for the exit. Her petals have closed tight like a flower unwilling to bloom. She's not lost as he'd assumed. And it's up to him to coax her back. He's been going about it the wrong way.

* * *

It takes him a few days to find what he's looking for, but when he does, he feels the shards pierced in his chest relent an infinitesimal amount. He sets Elizabeth up in the living room wrapped in a cozy blankets and the windows are opened just a bit to allow some of the late summer air to sweep some of the stuffiness out of the room. Folding her hands around the cup of chamomile tea, he leans in to kiss her with more certainty. She hums into him so lightly it could be mistaken for his imagination, but the way she presses into him further has him grateful he's already kneeling as a sharp stirring flashes down his spine which he rejects vehemently. He pulls back and Elizabeth looks _at him, _not through him, waiting for him— _following his lead _—and he feels so infuriatingly stupid for not noticing this months ago. "I'm going to go pick up something. I shouldn't be long, okay?"

She nods and pulls the cup closer while he curls her hair behind her ear. He leaves a lingering kiss to her forehead, hoping his love nourishes her spirit the way hers does his, and takes his leave.

After he did what he set out to do, he had a number of questioning looks on his way back, but he disregarded them knowing he has the proper paperwork in place—thanks to Escanor. As if questioning him, Meliodas is peered at frequently from curious black orbs. Meliodas finally relents with a tiresome sigh. "I need you to help someone who's honestly a gift to this world. She's been hurt... badly. And I d-don't know what else to do. I love her so much, it feels like I'm dying seeing her so b-broken everyday." He grips his fist where his heart is in shambles, choking on his words as his tears fall without resistance. "I'd do anything. I'd give my life if it would save hers." He looks down to the mini pig who's watching him with intelligent beady eyes, and rubs his tears away with his sleeve. "Please, help her."

Meliodas is studied for a while longer before the pig seems to stand taller, his snout snuffs as if to say, "Leave it to me!"

Meliodas is certain he's losing his marbles at this point, but manages a tiny grin nonetheless. "Thank you—for listening too."

The pig nudges at his ankle as if to impress upon the fact, "That's what I do."

Meliodas takes a deep breath, then turns the key in the lock. The door is pushed open to see her exactly where he left her, though her mug is set on a coaster on the table, empty. When she turns, Meliodas muster up enthusiasm in his words, praying to anyone who's listening that this actually works. "I've got a surprise for you!"

In trots the pink pig with a four leaf clover mark on his backside. And Elizabeth, she becomes incandescent as her eyes become child like in their roundness and her mouth parts in a breathtaking smile. She spring over the back of the couch to cut the distance and falls to her knees to wrap herself around the awaiting pig.

Meliodas' knees buckle and he sinks to the ground in elated tears.

"Oh my goodness! It's a piggy, Meliodas!" She gushes, cheeks going pink from smiling so much as she nuzzles his back.

She's absolutely radiant. A small flame that's grown from dying embers. Meliodas holds in his sobs knowing he can let the flood of happiness that's threatening to swallow him whole out later, and settles for leaky tears as he beams a megawatt smile her way. "His name's Hawk. He's trained to go outside and even loves bubble baths. Oh, and did I mention, he's all yours?"

She breathes in like an excited little girl seeing her giant three tier birthday cake, then dissolves into silvery giggles when Hawk snuffles at her cheek. _"Really?" _

"Absolutely."

Then, as if for the first time, she seems to notice him. There's a spark of life in her eyes that can't be missed, and, just like that, his broken heart starts the slow process of mending. Elizabeth settles Hawk down before closing the short distance to take his face between her hands. He makes a soft, pitiful sound at the flare of emotions her touching him brings. She kisses him and he's weak for her, soaking up her softness and smooth taste like a man coming back from the brink. "Thank you for loving me," she warbles against his lips, tearing up as well.

He shakes his head and pulls her to sit sideways in his lap. "You don't ever have to thank me for fulfilling my purpose in life."

He's practically strangled against her breasts when she hugs him tight, Hawk coming to their side being pulled into the fold too.

"Can we get him cute bowls, and little bow ties, and-Oh! What about armor? He could be Sir Hawk!" She rattles off pulling back enough to start stroking Hawk's back as the pig preens from the attention.

"Whatever you want. You wanna come with?" He offers tentatively.

She appears to digests his words with wide eyes. "What?"

He swallows, then careful moves from under her so he can stand up. He lowers a hand to her. "Yeah, if you want, we can go buy all that stuff together."

She stares at his hand for too long of a moment and he thinks he's moved too fast for her, his hand slowly falling. She hasn't left the house other than to visit her father, and this might be too much. But when Hawk bumps her chest with his snout, she rubs his side while taking Meliodas' hand with her other. "Yes!" Her eyes are determined pools.

His lips spread into a boyish grin as he pulls her up. He knows this is just the first step and they have a long way to go to get back to where they were. But he'll take that journey so long as she's with him on it.

* * *

Hawk is quickly incorporated into their lives, and soon wherever Elizabeth is, Hawk isn't too far behind. Elizabeth starts to open up again, talking and laughing with him the way they used to. She ventures out of the penthouse with him more, being the one to insist they grab an ice cream or take a quiet stroll through the nearby park. They cook meals together and have movie nights where they curl up on the couch and take comfort in one another.

Day by day, the fire gains strength in her eyes. But not all days are good. Sometimes she'll gaze too long out the window or get lost in the liquid depths of her cup. She always retreats to their room with Hawk and stays for hours. He sometimes hears crying or he hears nothing at all. He doesn't push to find out why. But when she reemerges, she looks brighter, unburdened, and a step closer to her effervescent self. He knows those moments are needed, and, as time goes on, they become a rarity.

One morning he wakes to find her already in the kitchen with perfectly prepared pancakes topped with fresh strawberries at the table. They're overly sweet, but not as sweet as the smile she gives him when he scarfs them down with gusto, or the way her mouth feels against his with traces of buttery syrup.

She's kissing him again.

Sometimes simple pecks, but most others are lingering brushes that leave him keyed up and flushed. Her eyes fixate on him at times, gazing at him in a way that has his lower stomach coiling and Hawk charging him. The pig is very protective of Elizabeth for which Meliodas is grateful. His suppressed urges grow in strength with each look, each trail of her fingers down his chest or arms, and especially those pouty lips against his. He's taken to jerking off alone frequently, refusing to touch her unless she tells him to. She's been through so much and he's certain sex is the last thing on her mind. He feels disgusted with himself for even considering it.

Elizabeth blossoming into her glorious radiance once more has allowed him to heal with her partially as his guilt still plagues him with nightmares. He knew the man who raped and assaulted her. He'd shaken his hand on more than one occasion. And his nightmares depict that—Mael forcing himself on her in their bed and Meliodas just standing back, not moving a muscle to step in. It's how he feels about the situation, and having it so vividly brought to life is enough to keep him up most nights. He's not a screamer or thrasher, however, so when he does sleep he's able to keep these to himself.

He takes to searching for vacant spaces where a house/tavern can be built and looking into his company instead to keep his focus. He's been so consumed by his guilt and anguish that he hasn't been monitoring his business at all. He'd expected it to be in straits from not only his absence but also the guidance of a man he'd hired without further investigation. Instead, he discovers sales are stable and far from on the decline, as he's noticed with each subsequent monthly report.

Grabbing a scarf from the coat rack, Meliodas turns to Elizabeth who's cooing at a strutting Hawk wearing armor pieces. He gives a fond smile at the scene before saying, "I'm heading out now. I want to meet this guy in person and thank him for keeping things afloat."

"Okay! I love you!" She calls out casting a vibrant gaze his way.

He flounders before squeaking, "I love you too!"

The blustering winds cool him down easily enough, the briskness of it clearing his mind of gutter thoughts. The building with a red ouroboros dragon and _Dragon's Sin _branded at the top comes into view. He simmers down and slides his ruthless, no nonsense persona on with well practiced ease. Inside, he's given both shocked and pitying looks which doesn't surprise him. He can't run such a profitable company at a quarter of a century and not make the news for assaulting his former COO for raping his former-escort girlfriend. He tunes the stares and whispers out offering halfhearted, "Good afternoons," all the while.

He passes by the half circle desk where his secretary should be and finds it empty. He doesn't immediately take this as a bad sign as she could be on break. Ignoring his own office, he heads to the right where Harlequin's is located. He raps his knuckles on the wood though after a few beats there's no response. Brows creasing, he pushes open the door. Then very much wishes he hadn't. It's a short instance where all parties notice each other before Meliodas shuts the door back, but it's more than enough for him to have gotten quite the visual of Harlequin nailing his wife against his desk. Maybe it _is _their lunch time. As the sound of whispered screaming, thunks, and clacking is heard through the door, Meliodas honestly can't fault them. If Elizabeth was his secretary, he knows for certain he wouldn't have wasted the opportunity to have her over an extended lunch break.

The door creaks open. Wide purple eyes peer down at him trembling and watery. Her husband's amber gaze is remorseful. "Please, Mr. Lucifer—"

"Just call me Meliodas," he interrupts her.

"Meliodas, don't fire us." She pleads, voice hitching.

"It was unprofessional of us to partake in such acts at work. It was a one time thing and—"

"I doubt that," he cuts in again, this time over Harlequin, and raises his eyebrows as if daring him to deny it.

Diane wilts as Harlequin places his arm around her shoulders with a long sigh. "Should we start packing up?"

He lets them stew for a moment before genuinely smiling at the two. "Nah, this place could use a pair like you for as long as you want to stay. I've seen the numbers." At Diane's giddy smile and Harlequin's loosening stance he can't help but add, "Besides, when you love your girl, it's difficult to resist her."

"Th-thank you, Sir!" Harlequin exudes his gratitude while extending his hand.

Meliodas takes it firmly, not feeling an ounce of negativity or snootiness about them and feels this is one of his better choices.

Diane snatches his hand next and shakes it vigorously. "Thank you, Meliodas! Let me go get back to work now. Excuse me," she leans down to kiss her husband's cheek before flitting away in a show of skipping steps and swaying ponytails.

Harlequin is beet red and Meliodas can relate. "Um, let me show you the ideas I've been considering implementing and the projected figures," he stammers while welcoming Meliodas into his office.

* * *

On his way home he bumps into someone. Slanted crimson eyes look down at him and Meliodas jolts in recognition. Meliodas had relieved him of his services with harsh words and a substantial check which Ban had returned. Meliodas' behavior was uncalled for, but then again a lot of things he'd done while he was spiraling was. So he looks up at this man, feeling utterly ashamed to his bones, and can only say, "I'm sorry."

Ban considers him with a long, blank stare before he's all easygoing smiles and slaps him across the back. "Nah, it's fine man! That stuff is water under the bridge. Besides, if it weren't for that gig, I would've never found my lady." He assures heartily.

And it's only then Meliodas notices the petite woman tucked to Ban's side. He wonders how he was responsible for their meeting when her appearance causes him pause. There's something about her cherubic features and amber eyes that reminds him of the man he just had a riveting meeting with.

"This is Elaine King. Elaine meet Meliodas." Ban introduces with a hand between her shoulder blades.

She reaches to take his hand. Her fingers are ice cold, but strong in their grip. '_ King? Perhaps his sister?' _

"It's nice to meet you! How's Elizabeth doing? She was so wonderful having around the shop..." Her winning smile droops to heartfelt concern and things click into place. This was the woman he spoke to over the phone or more like coldly disregarded when he told her Elizabeth was quitting. There's a lot of atonments he needs to make.

When he goes to open his mouth she waves his words away with kindness and grace most likely seeing the regret contorting his expression. So with no other choice he answers her question, "She's doing much better thanks to the therapy animal I got her."

"And because of you I'm sure," she points out good naturedly while lifting a hand to hold her hair away from her face at the wind gust.

He does the same, with a fractured smile. He's been of no help to Elizabeth.

"And what about you, man?" Ban inquires.

He lets his hand drop and his hair settles back neatly in place with a few errant locks here and there. "What about me?"

"How are you doing with everything?"

Meliodas has to pause before answering, feeling the dissonance between his emotions towards Elizabeth healing and his unrelenting guilt on that needing to be a process to begin with in his heart. His smile is weak. "I'm taking it a day at a time with her."

Ban's hand swallows his shoulder in an encouraging grip. "That's all we can ever do. I guess we'll see you around then?"

He nods as they continue on their way believing his choice to bear his sins alone is the right thing to do. "Definitely."

* * *

The house is quiet when he enters.

Hawk is asleep in his plush bed by the kitchen and only looks up for a moment before settling back down. Their bedroom door is shut. He feels a fist close around his heart before he bats it away knowing there's nothing to worry about. Hawk wouldn't be so calm otherwise. So he pulls off his scarf and coat then heads to the door down the hall. He knocks just in case she wants to be alone. There's no answer after a few beats and he assumes she's sleeping.

Upon opening the door the muted light through the gap in the curtains highlights her lack of presence on the bed. He sweeps his gaze through the room, noting the partially shut closet door. He sees the bathroom door is closed so he heads there next. He taps the wood with his knuckles and calls her name. A few breaths later, arms encircle his torso from behind and soft, pliant curves mold against the length of his back. The chill of fall melts away with her touch. His breath hitches. Hers fans his ear and plump lips catch hold of the shell. His heart is sensed through his ribs like a violent thrumming of strings that harmonizes with the one pressed against his back. His eyes flutter shut as he turns in her grasp. And he knows what this is—what she'll want—before he can even ask.

Her hands follow his movements, sliding around his sides to feel along his chest and his eyes peel open. Her eyes are like the turbulent waters at sea, ready to tug him under and manipulate his body according to her whims. "I've missed you..." She coos with a salacious curve of her lips.

His hands fall to the sheer material wrapped around her. He wants to hold her away, to tell her he doesn't deserve what he couldn't protect. But the thrill that sends a shiver through her at his touch leads him to kissing her—to giving in as his built up desires bursts free from the dam he kept them contained behind. Their clothes are removed in jerky rushed tugs and pulls. Their bodies stumble towards the bed as they try to keep their mouths together. They inevitably fail and she giggles a cute simpering sound that has his stomach flipping and an uncontrollable grin spreading his lips. She hits the bed first, scooting back with little shrieks of laughter as she slips out of his grasp. He finally pounces with a cheeky grin, capturing her hands in his. Their playful fit morphs into crackling tension when he presses his bare skin to hers.

Things slow down from there.

Touches are savored, tracing every inch of supple flesh. Kisses are placed on the curve of shoulders, climb up ribs, and circle hip bones… he's careful with her, adoring her body with little kisses, from the tips of her toes all the way up to her crown of silver hair. He rains his affection down on her skin until she flips them over and begins to do the same to him. It's gooey warmth in his stomach and cheek, prickling heat while feeling her lips pressed to his fingertips, the insides of his wrists, and right over his heart. It's intense and mind numbing to feel her lips suck bright spots on the insides of his thighs, lavish his balls, and trail up his oozing cock.

And before he knows it, she's under him again and they're rocking together. Hot and slick, and electric pulses down his spine. Their eyes are locked and their breathing shared. Her fingers squeeze at his ribs as she guides him into her entrance at the apex of the cradle of her thighs. It's… euphoria, the meeting of souls, the carnal joining of bodies. Meliodas hardly thinks during this time as his body becomes instinctively driven, a charged livewire jolting every time he slides in and out of her. Her moans are gasping in his ear. Her body eloquent in its language in the way it rolls and gyrates, it's need vocalized in the slide of her feet down his calves and the way she trembles with every thrust.

They're magnets of opposite poles, drawn together inexplicably in quickening movements. Each departure of his body from hers a physical ache they correct by moving faster. _Harder. _Wet lewd smacks accentuate the heady building sensation between them. Sweat gathers making their bodies slicker, the friction delicious. The pleasurable explosion inevitable. Elizabeth constricts, her mouth forming a wide circle before she arches, her legs quaking as she gives a guttural groan of his name. Her ecstasy grips him in sublime ripples, forcing molten heat up his dick before he can blink. It's inescapable. It's all consuming. It sends his anxieties through the roof as he draws his hips back.

Elizabeth tightens her legs and thrusts herself onto his cock, and he gives in, grinding into her through every white hot spurt of gratification as her eyes hold his, lidded with contentment. As the peak tapers off, his satisfaction becomes tainted as he shudders atop her, unwilling to look at her—unable to when his tears gather then fall. Elizabeth is quick to pull herself off of him and, believing she is disgusted with him for filling her body, he bites his lip to conceal his heart wrenching noises. She rolls their bodies, and pulls him so close they might be mistaken as one, forcibly erasing that fear. "Did you not want to... because he tainted me?" Only for another to rear up and take its place at the flat, emotionless way she questions him as if she's long since made up her mind on what his answer would be.

His breathing halts. Why would she think that? Does she not understand his failures? "No… I'm the reason he was able to hurt you! I have _no right _to claim you so deeply. I don't deserve to anymore." He grits his teeth, breathing harsh and shaking as broken rivulets of tears leak down his skin dripping off his nose and chin. "I should only give pleasure to you, never receive it." He hisses the words, his insides broiling in a readily welcomed pain.

Her fingers hook under his chin and lifts his gaze up to hers. The blue there is shaky, her features scrunched up as tears swim in her eyes. "That's not what I want at all, Meliodas. One of the main reasons I was so... _devastated _was because he'd taken away the thing I o-only shared with you and I felt so... _ruined." _She brushes her knuckles over his cheek and breathes, "I thought you believed I was disgusting."

It's as if the floor opens up under him sending his stomach slamming up through his throat. He pushes his body up so he can take hold of her face with tender reverence as panic burns like acid over his tongue.

"I know now and have for a while, but at first I was unreachable." She assures swiftly, bringing her hands up to cup his. And then she fills her lungs with a bracing breath. "You've done so much for me... I don't feel like my love for you is enough." It quivers free of her as her voice grows reedy.

_"It is. _Elizabeth, just you allowing me to be with you, I'll be sated for the rest of my life." His gaze flits between her eyes desperately pleading with her to understand.

She looks at him, seeing something else though. In her eyes, he suddenly feels as if he's the most precious thing in existence, her eyes so teeming with love his heart squeezes as it fills and fills. "No, you don't understand. You've done so much for me during this entire ordeal... and never once have I assured you that none of this was your fault."

His eyes well, his soul clinging to her words as his mind denies it. "But Elizabeth—"

"It wasn't." She says firm, unyielding. "You did everything right. Please stop blaming yourself. I don't hate you," a kiss to his nose, "I don't want you to stay away from me," a kiss on each cheek. "I want you happy, burdenless, and full of my love for you." She captures his lips fully.

His heart overflows, accepting her words as balm over the bleeding wound that festered there. He cries his relief when she pulls him close, finally given the chance to let go and begin healing himself.

* * *

The penthouse is filled with mouthwatering scents. Pots simmer in the kitchen, dusty orange, lemon yellow, and rusty red decorative leaves are strung up around the room, and a cute cornucopia rests as the center piece of the table. It had been quite the event preparing the meal with Elizabeth as an incident occurred with the stuffing. Though Hawk seemed more than happy eating up the mess. They had everything prepared... except for the pie. Which is why Elizabeth and Hawk ran out to grab something store bought while he monitors the stove top and oven.

Meliodas gazes out the window at the light snow drifting down, his insides fuzzy and warm as his mind whirls at how different things are compared to a year prior. His house was empty and lifeless while he ate a turkey sandwich before turning in early. There was nothing to look forward to with only brief phone calls from his brother and father. Now he's having a new home/tavern built in a cozy little spot at the edge of the city Elizabeth picked out, and his hands grow clammy as he thinks about the stores he's been pursuing lately. He's getting way ahead of himself, but he sees no reason not to be prepared.

A knock resounds from the door and he moves towards it knowing Elizabeth probably forgot her key in her haste—this wouldn't be the first time. He pulls it open, fondly chiding, "You know you could've just let me go out and grab it. The weather could turn nasty and I..." His speech dries up as his jaw slackens and his heart lurches into his throat. Standing before him is a man he knows—only because his face stares at him from different points in the living room.

Brown eyes twinkle though his lips are presses thin. "Ah, so you're the lad my daughter has told me so much about, Meliodas." His voice reminds Meliodas of well loved books and that of a regal king.

Meliodas' back stiffens and his stomach forms knot after knot. "Yes, sir. Mr. Liones, sir. P-please come in," he scrambles out of the way, mind churning out blanks as he tries to control his breathing.

The older man strides forward in slow even steps and Meliodas outstretches his hands for the sturdy coat he wears. "How are you? Elizabeth told me you were doing much better, but that you weren't do for release until next week." He pats the coat down on the rack brushing away the lingering snow as his lungs contract faster and faster. "Is there something I can get you? Oh, where are my manners! You can have a seat."

A warm rolling laugh cuts off his word vomit before it can truly begin and Meliodas turns to see Baltra holding his belly. "You are just as my dear daughter described."

Meliodas fidgets with his collar with shaky fingers. "And how's that?"

His beard shifts as he visibly ponders, "If I recall, her exact words were, 'He gets so cute and nervous when he doesn't want to mess up something important to him.'"

Even in the storm of nerves raging inside him, Meliodas can feel a blossom of warmth in the center of it all from his rendition of her words. It gives him enough strength to square his shoulders and own up to what they already know. He holds Baltra's eyes as they become unreadable. "I know I've already failed you, so there's no making up for that. But know this sir, I plan to love, cherish, and care for your daughter for as long as she'll have me. I'll do anything in my power to keep her safe and happy." He widens his stance as if preparing for battle and raises his chin, "That is the promise I make to you." He pitches his voice low and firm as his heart beats with strength. Baltra, grey and aged, appears as mighty and unwavering through his piercing stare as a papa bear should. Tension makes the air heavy and smothering, but neither back down as Meliodas awaits the verdict to his declaration.

"You talk big for someone so small... but you've more than proven you can back up your claims." Brown eyes soften like warm cocoa and Meliodas falters, eyes rounding at the one-eighty. "My daughter is happy because of you, flourishing even! I haven't seen her this carefree since she was a little girl, and I have _you _to thank for it!" He exclaims while placing a heavy hand on Meliodas' shoulder.

His cheeks become hot as he stammers, "Th-That's all I want for her, sir. It's what I live for." he finds himself grinning without thought, his inner peace deeply nourished with her beaming visage each day.

Baltra's beard raises with his smile. His voice is a delighted splash of butterscotch zeal as his fingers squeeze. "Ah, it did sound as if you were fishing for a blessing before!"

Meliodas is certain his face is streaming as his nerves fire off on all cylinders. "Was I really so obvious?! I don't plan to ask her anytime soon! I've just been thinking—a-and we still have to move into our home early next year! We haven't even been together a full year yet—and—"

"Son."

The non-formal address slams Meliodas lips shut as he blinks up at Baltra, overcome with the weighty sensation of awe sat atop his ribs.

"When you're prepared to ask for my daughter's hand... You have my approval." His eyes are toasty with sincerity as he extends his hand between them.

Meliodas exhales in a rush as the weight presses in, his eyes pricking at the responsibility so readily given. He grabs Baltra's hand, firmly taking the priceless gift without hesitation. "Thank you, Baltra."

They shake their connected hands, Baltra's steadiness crumbles into blubbering waterworks in a snap. "Oh my sweet girl won't be my baby anymore! She'll be married with a family of her own in no time!"

Meliodas flails his arms in front of him as he tries to manage this man's boomeranging moods, suddenly understanding where Elizabeth gets her unpredictability. Then with the click of a lock, in walks their topic of discussion with Hawk on her heels.

"I couldn't decide which we would like better—sweet potato, pumpkin or this yummy looking custard pie, so I got—" the bags drop to the ground when she looks up and practically races to grab her father in a bear hug. "Papa! What are you doing here? Are you okay? Why are you crying?!"

Baltra cries harder, his arms coming around his daughter as the sobs, "I'm just so happy!"

Elizabeth's breath hitches and her smile becomes watery as tears leak down her cheeks. "Oh, that's wonderful!"

Meliodas is a bystander to the chaos unfolding in their home. But he grins all the while, blinking back tears at the sight. A snout nudges his calf and he looks down to find Hawk's eyes peering at him with a knowing glint.

Meliodas wipes at his eyes with a short huff. "What? If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, right?" Elizabeth pulls him into the fold at that moment and he holds them tight, shedding tears with them both.

"Can he stay?" Elizabeth questions against his ear light as a breeze and when they all pull away from the hug, her eyes are uncertain.

He kisses her cheek. "This is your home too. You don't have to ask for permission. Your father can stay as long as he needs," he announces, shifting his gaze between the two.

"Thank you, Meliodas. I appreciate the hospitality. I won't stay too long, just long enough to get back on my feet." Baltra rubs his hands over his and Elizabeth's shoulders, his eyes crinkling. "Now let me help get dinner ready," he insists, moving towards the kitchen.

Elizabeth links their fingers and shoots him an ecstatic, teeth gleaming smile before tugging him after her to start the first family Thanksgiving of, hopefully, many more to come.

* * *

He adds the finishing touches on the sandwich before wrapping it up and adding it with the strawberries, chocolate chip cookies, and a water bottle, and like clockwork, footsteps thump down the stairs. Meliodas looks up and grins seeing flaxen locks pulled in pigtails today, the sunlight glinting off of the knockers pinning them up. Cerulean eyes examines the packed lunch before her lips pucker in an adorable pout exactly like her mother's. "Only one cookie, daddy?" She whines, turning big eyes up at him from a miniature version of Elizabeth's features, instantly tugging at his heart strings.

He holds strong and gives her a firm look. "Morgana…" he starts only for her eyes to shimmer with unshed tears and he softens. He crouches down places a hand to the top of her head and offers, "If you're a good girl at school today, you'll have another as soon as you get home. How's that sound?"

She throws her little arms around his neck. "Thank you, daddy!

He holds his baby girl close, inhaling her spring breeze scent with a full heart. When she pulls away with her bubbly demeanor and gapped tooth grin in place, he kisses her brow. "That's my girl." He praises, before springing to his feet. Closing the lunchbox her turns her around to stuff it in her backpack with charms clipped to the zipper, before giving her the tiniest of pushes towards the door. "Now go on! You don't want to be late, do you?"

She giggles and dashes away pulling the door open, the bell ringing above it. He sees Ban towering just outside with a small boy bouncing at his side. Morgana greets Ban and Lancelot excitedly while Meliodas waves towards them from inside just catching Ban's return greeting before the door shuts. He lets out a soft exhale before collecting the leftover ingredients and heading towards the bar's kitchen adjacent to the wall of various liquor and beer.

Although he's quick, by the time he re enters the room of white table cloth covered tables, one of them has been occupied in his absence. His lips curve down with worry even as his heartbeat skips with joy. Even though it's been years, his heart still soars at the sight of her. He moves to her side taking the stool beside her. "What are you doing down here? You could've—"

"Tripped." She snatches the words right off his tongue and he can tell just from her snippy tone and narrow blue eyes, she's in a mood. "I know. You say that every time. But I didn't. I'm fine. The baby's fine. But I can tell you what we both are," she pauses for effect, leaning into him so he can see each fleck of blue that makes up her eyes shimmer like stained glass in the sunlight, "Bored."

He takes her hand over the table and thumbs her ring, a habit he picked up since the moment she allowed him to put it on her finger, and tries to reason with her for the thousandth time. "Growing a healthy baby requires rest, Ellie."

She pouts just like their daughter and her knows he'll cave—Morgana learned it from the best after all. "Growing a baby boy requires a happy mama and I'm not very happy right now." She brings her head to his shoulder and he wraps his arms around her.

He leans his head against hers and asks, "What can I do?"

In place of a verbal response, she places her hand on his chest over his fluttering heart then drags it down. His breath catches and his blood rushes to beat her to her destination. His muscles go rigid, especially the throbbing one she strokes to full length against his thigh. Her lips latch onto his throat and he rumbles a groan trying to grab ahold of his quickly deserting thoughts. "I want you to make love to me…" she responds needlessly while squeezing the head between forefinger and thumb, invoking a weak noise from him as his fingers flex against her back. "And I want you to do it here, against this table," her tone is sinful and smooth, melting over his senses until he's left with nothing to fight back with—not that he wants to.

"Elizabeth…" he whispers. Breathing faster helps little as her soft scent fills his lungs with every inhale. His hands have already started moving, caressing her sides as imaginings of making love to his gorgeous, very pregnant wife, begin to flood his mind. He gasps, "Someone could see us," the back wall of the Avallo is filled with curving cross hatched windows after all.

She pulls back, her eyes rounded in an innocent show of knee weakening lust and yanks the belt loop of his olive green pants. "That hasn't stopped us before," she breathes against his lips.

That's also true. It's how they ended up with Morgana. A cold, snowy winter day that lead to a hot, steamy warm up instead of the anniversary making love on a bed of rose petals that earned them their newest. Meliodas manages a jerky nod before rising unsteadily to lock the entrance. When he turns back to her, she's lying on her side on the table facing him with a bright smile and adoration swirling in her gaze. His emotions bubble up suddenly, stuffing his chest at the sight of her as breathtaking as the day he first laid eyes on her. To this day, he can't grasp how lucky he is that she has chosen to marry him, to have his kids, to be with him, and love him. Not a day goes by when he doesn't shower her with his devotion and give his eternal gratitude to whoever handed him that card that facilitated their meeting.

Her brows furrow and she pulls up to her elbows, her silver hair cascading to one side mesmerizingly. "Are you okay?"

He strides to her and guides her to her back where he gingerly takes ahold of her face. "I'm fine. Just having one of those moments when it hits me how much I'm in love you." He tells her earnestly, stroking her cheeks.

Her cheeks gain an entrancing pink hue and she tugs him down by his vest to connect their lips as her legs wind around his waist. He savors the smile she shapes their lips to. "You are the sweetest husband and I love you so much." She whispers against his mouth and he kisses her in a whirling flood of passion needing to sate his urge to worship her again.

With Elizabeth he's made the life he's always longer for—a cozy home, a job they both enjoy, and a family filled with love. Now that he's tasted this bliss, now that he's _experienced _it, Meliodas has no plans of letting it go


End file.
